Ray Acheson Remembrances – His Handyman Business

Oscar Lazaro – Ray telling me that laying down the stone tiles on our mudroom and laundry will be brainless and only take 2 days (took us 2 weeks – and it still ain’t right!) – but we had a lot of laughs!

John Whisnant – Ray’s trucks. After retiring from Raytheon, I don’t think Ray missed a work day. He reinvented himself as a carpenter and an all-purpose handyman. Many of the HPGers had Ray replace steps, install doors, put on new clapboard, etc. His conveyance was a flatbed Dodge truck, which progressively rusted away due to salt spray from driving it on the beaches in Martha’s Vineyard to entertain his grandchildren. More than once, he would get to my house and explain how the brakes had failed completely and he was lucky to have stopped before hitting anyone. Finally Ray decided to buy a new Ford Transit van and spec’ed it out with racks for his tools and equipment. I though it was great Ray had bought something for himself since he was always putting others first, and Ray was really pleased with it. I was sure that there would be years of Ray handyman projects before this truck rusted out as well. We miss you Ray.