Up-state New Yorkers Ray and Shirley Limoges now happily call Glenwood Springs their home.  Ray was born on the Canadian border in Odgensburg, New York, and has a rich French Canadian heritage.  Both parents and grandparents were natives of Canada.  Ray started life speaking French, which was used exclusively in the home.  Not until he was seven did English become his language.  He remembers that during WWII butter, meat, and sugar were rationed and sometime impossible to get in the U.S.   His family found that they could ferry across the Saint Lawrence to Canada where these products were readily obtainable.

Shirley started life in Binghamton, New York.  She met Ray when she was doing her student teaching.  A friend said “I’m going out with a fellow who lives in a Bachelor’s Club with twelve fabulous bachelors.  Would you like to meet one?”  Out of this big selection she found Ray, who was working at Ingersoll-Rand at the time.

Ray later enrolled in Rochester Institute of Technology and received his degree in engineering.  Shirley took her first teaching job in a town nearby.   Then Ray started working for Kodak and Shirley stayed busy raising their two girls and a boy--very busy in fact, as she found time to resume her teaching career when the oldest reached five years old.  She taught music for twenty-eight years, including piano, organ, and guitar.  She also became a mentor for students with difficulties.  During the 1980’s both Ray and Shirley were actively involved in prison ministry at several prisons in New York. 

Ray’s work with Kodak became a fascinating career.  His first project was in the Aerospace program on a project to photograph and map both sides of the moon in preparation for manned exploration.  He also helped develop a hand-held camera that enabled the astronauts to take close-up photos of the lunar soil.  He spent eight years working on classified aerospace projects. 

Later Ray worked on high-speed copiers for Kodak and began a traveling career.  His work took him to Japan, Europe, China, Mexico, and South America.   During this era he worked as the Engineering Manager for consumer equipment.  Ray helped set up factories in Shanghai, Brazil, Guadalajara, and Monterey, Mexico.  He estimates that he was traveling fifty percent of the time.

For twelve years, while Ray traveled, Shirley did long-term substitute teaching. They speak fondly of the home they had on Conesus Lake in New York during this phase of their lives.  They enjoyed the beautiful scenery and boating that was at their doorstep.  In 1996, Ray decided he had enough of traveling and retired from Kodak.  The following Monday, however, he was back to work as a consultant for an International Manufacturing Consortium. The traveling continued and even increased.

 In 1999, he retired for good and they came to Colorado to ski for six weeks.  Ray was looking for someone to ski with, and his brother suggested that he contact the Chamber of Commerce because there was an “older” group that skied together.  The Chamber gave him Hal Sundin’s number.  This was a Tuesday and Hal invited Ray and Shirley to ski on Wednesday.  Shirley said they felt instant friendship from the 100 Club (and the members weren’t THAT old!).

They have lived in Glenwood for five years and are active members of the community. They ski, hike, and bike with the 100 Club.   They are very active in Habitat for Humanity locally, just as they were back east.  They still like to travel and most recently vacationed with a river trip from Vienna to Amsterdam.

by Marge Chandler