Robert D. Ray | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ray in 1977 | |
| 38thGovernor of Iowa | |
| In office January 16, 1969 – January 14, 1983 | |
| Lieutenant Governor | Roger Jepsen Arthur Neu Terry Branstad |
| Preceded by | Robert D. Fulton |
| Succeeded by | Terry Branstad |
| President ofDrake University (interim) | |
| In office 1998 | |
| Mayor of Des Moines | |
Acting | |
| In office May 5, 1997 – November 3, 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Arthur Davis |
| Succeeded by | Preston Daniels |
| Chair of theNational Governors Association | |
| In office June 8, 1975 – July 4, 1976 | |
| Preceded by | Cal Rampton |
| Succeeded by | Cecil Andrus |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Dolph Ray (1928-09-26)September 26, 1928 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | July 8, 2018(2018-07-08) (aged 89) Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 daughters |
| Education | Drake University (BA,LLB) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1946-1948 |
Robert Dolph Ray (September 26, 1928 – July 8, 2018) was an American lawyer andRepublican politician. He served as the38th governor of Iowa from January 16, 1969 to January 14, 1983.[1][2][3][4][5]
During his tenure as governor, Ray served as chair of theNational Governors Association from 1975 to 1976;[2][5][6] led to the passage of the Iowa Burials Protection Act of 1976, which was the first legislative act in the United States that specifically protected American Indian remains; and accepted thousands of refugees into Iowa.[2]
In his later years, Ray served as acting mayor ofDes Moines from May 1997 to November 1997[2][3][5][6] and was interim president ofDrake University in 1998.[3][5][6][7]
Ray was born inDes Moines, Iowa, in 1928, to Clark Ray and Mildred Helen (Dolph) Ray.[1][2][4][6][7] He graduated fromTheodore Roosevelt High School in 1946.[4][5][6] Later in 1946, with the permission of his parents, he joined theUnited States Army and spent two years inJapan as part of the first wave of relief troops afterWorld War II.[1][4][5][6]
Ray received a Bachelor of Arts degree in business fromDrake University, using theGI Bill, in 1952 and a law degree in 1954.[1][2][4][5][6] He then was a law and reading clerk for theIowa State Senate.[1][4][6] He also practiced law in Des Moines.[1][4][6]
Ray began his career as a trial lawyer. Following several years practicing law, Ray became chair of theIowa Republican Party in 1963 until 1967.[1][2][4][6] Ray supported Pennsylvania governorWilliam Scranton in the 1964 Republican presidential primaries. He was named one of America’s young leaders byTime Magazine in 1974.[1][4][5] He was on the short list to be Vice President on the Republican ticket in the1976 Presidential Election.[4] He was also offered, twice, to join PresidentGerald Ford's cabinet, but refused both offers.[4]
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He was elected in the1968 Iowa gubernatorial election and became theGovernor of Iowa in 1969.[3][4][5][6][7][8] During Ray's time in office, the Iowa Constitution was modified, increasing the governor's term of office from two years to four years.[1][6] Ray served as chair of theNational Governors Association from 1975 to 1976.[1][2][4][5] He also served as chairman of theRepublican Governors Association, theMidwestern Governors Association, theEducation Commission of the States[5] and was the president of theCouncil of State Governments.[1][2][4][5][6] He would be re-elected in1970,[4][5][9]1972,[4][5][10]1974,[4][5][11]1978.[3][4][5][6][12]
As governor, Ray issued executive orders promoting civil rights, energy conservation, and paperwork reduction as well as establishing the Governor's Economy Committee, the Iowa Council for Children, the Task Force on Government Ethics, the Science Advisory Council, the Iowa Department of Transportation,[4][5][6] and the Iowa High Technology Commission.[2] Ray signed legislation establishing the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women in 1974.[2][4][5] In 1982, that commission named him the first recipient of the Cristine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice. In 1976, Ray, along with his wife Billie Ray and three daughters, became the first governor of Iowa to occupyTerrace Hill, the official governor's mansion.[13]
Ray reduced property taxes and increased the income tax in order to fund the public schools of Iowa.[4] The school foundation plan, which was passed by the legislature and signed by Ray in 1971, was crafted with the intention to lessen inequities among school districts.Arthur Neu, who served as State Senator and as Ray's lieutenant governor from 1973 to 1979, noted in an interview: "School funding was one of the most important pieces of legislation we worked on. It set Iowa schools on the path to being the best in the nation. It’s a plan a lot of other states copied."
Ray also signed into law bipartisan legislation that supported collective bargaining for public employees and removed sales taxes from groceries and prescription drugs.[4][5][6] He opposed the death penalty and supported abortion for women in cases that risked women's health, and in cases of rape and incest. He also expanded an elderly tax credit.[6]
One of the defining moments in Ray's governorship was in April 1972, when as Commander in Chief of theIowa National Guard, he ordered the grounding of more than a thousand vehicles and ninety planes, until the federal government paid for the damages to the McCarville and Tjernagel families, whose houses had been destroyed by crashing Air Force planes in 1968.[3][4][14][15] The end result would be a pay out by theUnited States Air Force to the families ending a 4 year battle.[3][4][15] Ray then ordered the Iowa National Guard's airplanes and vehicles were put back in service.[3][4][15]
Ray was an advocate of thenickel deposit on aluminum cans.[6] One of Ray's proudest achievements was signing a bottle bill into law.[2][4][5] The bottle bill, which received opposition from labor unions and aluminium manufacturers but support from theSierra Club, theFarm Bureau and theBoy Scouts of America, required Iowans to pay a 5-cent deposit on containers in order to encourage the practice of recycling and the reduction of litter on the roads of the state.[2] Ray noted that "Americans are part of a throw-away society".[2][16]
Ray served as a delegate to the United Nations Conference on Refugees inGeneva, Switzerland in 1979.[1][4][5]
Ray's tenure in office was notable for his humanitarianism on behalf of Southeast AsianTai Dam refugees.[2][3][4][5][6][17] Ray agreed to bring the group to the United States by creating his own refugee resettlement program.[2] Ray announced that the state of Iowa would accept 1,500 more refugees in January 1979.[2][3] Ray wrote letters to PresidentJimmy Carter and other governors asking them to support greater admissions of boat people.[3] Opinion polls from the period demonstrated Ray's refugee resettlement and relief efforts were very controversial. Many feared competition for jobs, diversion of funds from needy native Iowans, and racial mixing. Ray said the following in regard to the refugees:[18]
“I didn’t think we could just sit here idly and say, “Let these people die. We wouldn’t want the rest of the world to say that about us if we were in the same situation. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Ray also enacted the first laws in the U.S. that protected American Indian graves.[19] In the early 1970s,Maria Pearson was appalled that the skeletal remains ofNative Americans were treated differently from those ofcaucasians.[19] Pearson protested to Ray, finally gaining an audience with him after sitting outside his office in traditional attire.[19] Ray cooperated with Pearson, and their work led to the passage of the Iowa Burials Protection Act of 1976, the first legislative act in the U.S. that specifically protected American Indian remains.[19] This act was the state version of the federalNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, that passed in 1990.[19]
Ray was invited, with several other governors, to tourChina in 1974, then again to tour theSoviet Union in 1975.[6] Ray also led 2 delegations to Japan, and witnessed the ceremony in 1975 to celebratePapua New Guinea's independence fromAustralia.[6]
Ray was co-chair (along withBob Edgar) of the bipartisanNational Coalition on Health Care.[4]
Ray served as interim mayor ofDes Moines from May to November 1997.[2][3][4][5][6] Ray supported Howard Baker in the1980 Republican Party presidential primaries.[3]
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After leaving the governor's office in 1983, Ray became CEO of Life Investors Inc, an insurance company in Cedar Rapids.[4][5][7] He then moved back to Des Moines to become CEO ofBlue Cross Blue Shield.[4][5] He also owned two radio stations, one namedKILR inEstherville and another he co-ownedWMT in Cedar Rapids.[4][5]
In 1997, he helped form the Institute for Character Development atDrake University.[2] Ray was the interim president ofDrake University in 1998.[1][2][4][5][6][7]
In 2005, Ray became the only governor or former governor to have received Iowa's highest civilian honor, the Iowa Award, by the Iowa Centennial Memorial Commission and presented by GovernorTom Vilsack.[4][5]
The Robert D. Ray Asian Garden, in Downtown Des Moines, was named in his honor for his work saving Southeast Asian refugees.[18][20][a]
On December 22, 1951, Ray married Billie Lee Hornberger, his highschool sweetheart and had three daughters.[4][5][6] In Ray's later years, he suffered fromParkinson's disease.[2][3][4][7]
On July 8, 2018, Ray died at a nursing home inDes Moines, at age 89.[2][3][4][5][7]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by William G. Murray | Republican nomineeGovernor of Iowa 1968,1970,1972,1974,1978 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theRepublican Governors Association 1977–1978 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Iowa 1969–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theNational Governors Association 1975–1976 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Arthur Davis | Mayor of Des Moines Acting 1997 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Michael Ferrari | President ofDrake University Acting 1998–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Territorial(1838–1846) | ||
|---|---|---|
| State(since 1846) | ||
