Born August 20, 1930 Died February 8 2024

Ray Bush was born on August 20, 1930 in Pontiac, Michigan, fifteen days before his future wife, Betty Nisbett.  He grew up in Pontiac and then Waterford, Michigan and graduated from Pontiac High School (later Pontiac Central) in 1948.  Afterward, he served in the US Army during the Korean War where he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan.

Upon returning from service, he married Betty on July 26, 1952.  That marriage lasted for over 65 years.  They had three daughters and one son.  Diane (the late Benjamin Kratz), Lawrence (Alice), Kimberly (Garry Moses), and Kathleen (Scott Saffron).  Ray has a total of twenty grandchildren, and 28 great-grandchildren (so far).

As an avid ballplayer, Ray got a try-out with the New York Yankees when he was in his late teens.  Any pro baseball ambitions were stunted by his enlistment in the Army.  For several decades after his service, he played softball—first playing fast-pitch, and later playing a form of slow-pitch called blooper ball in Waterford.  Other sports he took an interest in were table tennis, badminton, bowling, and he and Betty played golf.  For a few years, Ray took up long-distance running, and finished all 26.2 miles of the Detroit International Marathon in 1983.

After the service, he enrolled at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, Michigan and became an engineer for the Pontiac Motor Division of GM.  He worked there for 35 years, and during that time, garnered a patent for himself and GM.  He earned one dollar for that accomplishment.  However, an investment he made at work in a Michigan lottery ticket earned him $10,000 in 1980.

Ray and Betty traveled.  In fact, they visited five of the seven continents in the world.  His offspring fondly remember camping road trips throughout the United States and Canada.  They flew to Hawaii for a week and their trip to Alaska was legendary (and the first one after he retired).  Other excursions include cruises on the Danube River and through the Panama Canal; visiting New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand.  During a trip to Spain, they crossed the straits and visited Morocco. But mainly, they took road trips around the United States and eventually visited all fifty of them.  

     Ray retired from GM in 1985.  Shortly thereafter, he and Betty moved to Fairfield Glade, Tennessee where they lived in a condominium unit for a short time.  Ray designed a large three-bedroom house with an attached apartment for the two of them to live and entertain.  That house became the go-to place for their children’s and friend’s vacations.  Most of the time, they were visited by one family at a time.  For their collective 80^th birthdays they were surprised by a visit by all four children and their families (twenty-two family members total).  It went from Dad-house to mad-house in short order for a few days.   

     Betty and Ray took courses through the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and became master gardeners.  Among their accomplishments, Ray taught children at Crab Orchard Elementary School about gardening.  Betty wrote the “Gardening Almanac for the Plateau” book, copyright 2005, since updated and offered by the Cumberland County Master Gardeners.  She is remembered at the Plateau Discovery Garden in Crossville by a dogwood tree planted in her memory.  Ray also was instrumental in creating a Memorial Garden at their church, Fairfield Glade United Methodist Church.  The two of them always had plenty of flowers around their homes in the Glade and Ray raised vegetables in a communal garden near Dorchester Golf Course.  Eventually, the grounds around Good Samaritan were groomed by Ray until he could no longer care for them.

     Ray and Betty golfed—a lot.  Betty stopped when she was in her 70s, and Ray stopped golfing when he was 80 years old.  He complained that the pain from playing was not worth the exercise and fellowship that came with the game.  When Betty broke her hip, they decided to live in the newly opened Good Samaritan Senior Living Complex in Fairfield Glade in a two-bedroom apartment.  Soon after Betty died in 2017, Ray moved into assisted living at Good Samaritans where he could get better care.  As his health deteriorated, he was moved to skilled care in 2023 where he eventually died February 8, 2024.      As with most of us, there is some legacy to our lives.  His engineering skills went into Pontiac Catalinas from the 1950s to its last year of production in 1981.  Many of those cars are now collectibles because of how they were built.  The grounds at Good Samaritan are maintained by others, but their layout is still as Ray planned them from the beginning.  And of course, the offspring, now numbering in the dozens, continue to live as they were influenced by their forebears, Ray and Betty Bush.

     Ray is survived by his four children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  Also, three sisters, Pat Hooker, Nancy Finn, and Boots Sutton, all in Florida.  He was preceded in death by his wife, Betty; parents Ray and Elizabeth Bush, brother, Jack; in-laws, Stuart and Helen Nisbett; great-grandson, Patrick Moses, and two of his best friends Bill Svenkesen of MI and Jerry Rood of Fairfield Glade TN.

    Ray enjoyed novelty things like peanut butter and onion sandwiches, silly rhyming songs, crazy ties, and/or colorful socks.  In his memory we encourage you to wear a crazy tie and/or colorful socks on May 3^rd.

    A Celebration of Life will be held Friday, May 3, 10am at the Fairfield Glade United Methodist Church, 231 Westchester Dr, Fairfield Glade, TN 38558, Pastor Lanita Monroe officiating.  This will be followed with military honors, burial, and visiting.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Fairfield Glade United Methodist Church Memorial Garden Fund (at the above address) or to Cumberland County Master Gardeners, c/o Alan Baker, 524 Tabor Loop, Crossville, TN  38571.