Raymond Noel Griffiths
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Raymond Noel Griffiths was born on Christmas day, 1936 in Grays, England. He was one of four siblings with three sisters Valerie, Christina and Shirley. Shirley is still alive and living in England. When asking Shirley about my father, she has special memories during Christmas time and Sunday tea, as these were cherished family times. She recalled that he was nicknamed “Smiley Face” because he was always smiling. It was a nickname he pronounced “Miley Bace.”
When he was only three years old, his house was demolished by a German bomb. Thankfully Ray was in a bomb shelter at the time and nobody was injured. By the time he was 20 years old, he had finished 2 years in the Royal Air Force which taught him about electronics, radio and radar technology.
Upon leaving the Air Force in 1956, he went to work for a British computer company as an electronics engineer. By 1959, he traveled to Paris for 3 weeks to demonstrate the first British transistorized computer. In 1960, Ray went to Russia for several weeks to setup a computer and teach engineers how to fix it if it went wrong. In 1961 he spent over a month in India installing and supporting a system. He has many stories of this time which he loved to share
He moved to the United States in 1962 for the British computer company to setup and service a computer while living in New Jersey. In 1965 he left the British company to work for an American company manufacturing printing equipment for newspapers. By 1965, Ray learned how to program and in 1968 he started his first company Compositions Systems Inc. CSI’s purpose was to provide software and large-scale computer systems to newspapers and typographers. The company grew to be one of the largest suppliers of computerized composition systems in North America in its time. Later in 1980, Ray sold his ownership of CSI and he started a new company named Rayport. He wrote the code for this computer system in the basement of his house.
In 1965 Ray met his first wife Judy Czach. Judy was a single mother with a daughter named Candace who Ray adopted in the late 70’s. Ray and Judy had their first son Stephen and two years later his second son David. In 1971 they had a house built with 8 acres of land in Kent Cliffs, NY. He was very busy not only with work, but also the incredible amount of work necessary for having a small farm raising horses, cows, chickens and pigs. He had cleared out two large fields with a chainsaw and even figured out how to build a barn from a “Do it Yourself” book. During storms he would say “Look, the barn is still standing”. If you look at the house today from Google Earth, you will see that that barn is still standing.
In June 1988, Ray married Dorothy McCaffery. Dorothy was the mother of four children. Her oldest son Joseph and daughters Jeanmarie, Katherine and her youngest Nora. They lived in Carmel, NY until 1993 when they moved to North Carolina where he got his real estate license. By 1996 Ray retired and moved back to New York to live closer to his grandchildren. He and Dorothy had a love for travel visiting countries like China, New Zealand, Ireland and Italy spending four or more weeks in each.
In February 2018, his wife Dorothy passed away leaving him sad and lonely. Soon after Dorothy’s death Ray was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma and his health was deteriorating fast, he was not able to live alone. After spending some time in a few medical facilities, Ray was accepted into his final resting place Rosary Hill Home.
Rosary Hill is a beautiful Catholic palliative care facility for people afflicted with incurable cancer. At Rosary Hill, Ray was loved and taken care of by all who interacted with him. Ray connected with everyone around him. Maybe it was divine intervention, or maybe the power of positivity or maybe a little of both, but Ray’s cancer went into remission. He had a renewed desire for life and it showed. He loved to tell stories of his past and people loved to hear them. He found himself a home at Rosary Hill and was well cared for. His family is forever grateful for all they provided.
Ray really enjoyed helping setup and play the daily games and activities with the other residents and coming up with ideas on how to improve things for the benefit of all. He made some very special friends at Rosary Hill in Father Jacob, the activity coordinators Annie and Christine, and all the Sister’s and nursing staff with particular gratitude for Sister Rita Maria and Sister Machellah. With all his accomplishments and the gifts of humor, insight, and gentleness he shared with others, Ray was rewarded in the best possible way by the compassionate care he received in the final years of his life.
Ray is survived by his children Candace Tangredi, Stephen and wife Cynthia Griffiths, David and wife Mary Griffiths. His stepchildren Nora and husband Andy Neiterman, Joseph and wife Wendy McCaffrey, Kathleen Richards, Jeanmarie and husband Keith Johnston. Ray had several grandchildren. Jennifer, Ashley, Amanda, Ryan, Aimee, Jake, Luke, Victoria, Nolan, David, John, Matthew, Samantha, Ian and Ana. He also had great grandchildren in Colten, Ariella, Melody and Jade.
Ray also leaves behind a long-time friend Robin White whom he has known since 1960 working for a computer company in England. Robin has been a great friend to Ray until who was always checking in on him and visiting him when he was able. They have known each other for almost 65 years.
Ray was a quiet, soft-spoken person with a great sense of humor. He had a passion for knowledge and a lot of determination. He was special in so many ways and his insight and ideas would be remembered. Ray is going to be missed by so many people, but his spirit will be with us for as long as we live