Ray Duncan Harrell

Ray Duncan Harrell, affectionately known as “Keg” passed away August 7, 2024.  Ray was born October 1, 1931, in Kearney, Nebraska, the second of four sons of Arthur Garland and Margaret Evelyn Weinle Harrell.  

As a child Ray, his brothers, and neighborhood kids would spend hours playing his favorite game, “kick-the-can”, along with, “run-sheep-run”, and “hide-and-go-seek”.  The family didn’t have a car during the war years (1941-1945 and after) so Ray remembered the whole month he spent at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch near Raton, New Mexico during the summer of ‘46 as a "magical experience".

After ten years in Kearney, the Harrell family moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, where Ray’s father was the high school band director.  He signed on for his first job as a newspaper boy, delivering the Kansas City Star to 100 houses, which was the beginning of his work ethic.  For all his effort,  he earned about $2 per week. He would save and spend his money on 10¢ balsa model airplanes, 5¢ large candy bars, a 15¢ double feature movie, 10¢ comic books, and a bottle of pop for a nickel. Ray was also active in Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle Scout.  He played first-chair clarinet in his father’s marching band and was active in several athletics high school sports. 

In 1953, after a hitch in the U.S. Air Force, including a year in Korea, Ray returned to the family home now in Wichita, Kansas, where his father was Director of Music Education for Wichita Public Schools.  There he married his college sweetheart Delores Faye McKay on June 3, 1955. Upon graduating in 1958 from University of Wichita (now Wichita State) with a degree in engineering, he took a job with Chance Vought Aircraft in Dallas, Texas, as a design engineer.  In 1960 he was hired by the Martin Company and moved to the much less humid Littleton, where he remained with them until his retirement in 1990.  While at Martin Marietta, he worked on several projects including Skylab, Titan launch vehicles, and research and development. Ray helped develop and build the Viking camera that took the first pictures of Mars in 1976. He was a contracts manager for the Titan IV program when he retired.

Ray was an avid genealogist who traced his family back 7 generations, where he discovered that he was a fourth cousin thrice removed, to President Herbert Hoover.  He was a member of several genealogy societies, a volunteer at the Denver Public Library, a member of the SAR (Sons of the American Revolution), enjoyed golf, rooting for the Broncos, and was a founding member of the Three Rivers Social Club (really a fishing/drinking/golf club).  He begrudgingly paid $45 for an Academy P-38 Lightning model airplane a week before his passing.

Ray was preceded in death by his loving wife of 66 years, Delores, and eldest daughter Linda.  He will be lovingly remembered by his daughters; Tracy (Nick) Brothers and Susan Harrell-Trice: grandchildren, Michelle, Amy (Justin), Kristy (Riley), Nicole (Tyler), Laura (Matthew), Sienna (Jacob), Helen, and Harry; nine great-grandchildren (with one more on the way); and one great-great grandchild.

A Celebration of Ray’s Life will be held on Monday, August 19, at 11:00 a.m., at Drinkwine Family Mortuary, 999 W Littleton Blvd, Littleton, CO 80120.  An interment will follow at Littleton Cemetery, Littleton, Colorado.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to causes close to Ray’s heart; Cross Bar X Youth Ranch, 2111 County Road 222Durango, CO 81303 or to Denver Public Library, 10 W 14th Ave, Denver, CO 80204.  Sadly, the Three Rivers Fishing Club is no longer taking donations.

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