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Richard Ray Jr. is a regular rider on the No. 14 bus, works in the customer-service department of U.S. Bank, has been married twice, likes to fish and has a golden retriever. By all accounts, an average guy. Not quite. Ray has been blind since age 6, and his golden retriever, Laramie, is a guide dog. The Keizer native has worked at U.S. Bank since 1993 but is planning to leave Portland for Denver to enroll in a master's program in Christian family counseling at Colorado Christian University. He is, in short, an ordinary guy who has managed to overcome extraordinary challenges. WW editorial assistant Christina Melander caught up with him at the Lucky Kitchen restaurant. Willamette Week: You've lived in Portland since 1993? Richard Ray Jr.: Yes, and it's been one really great city. I really like the bus system. Do you like the bus drivers? Most of them. Once in a while you get one that doesn't talk, and that's frustrating for me, but most of the time they're really friendly--in fact a lot of my friends are bus drivers. I also use the LIFT program sometimes, which is a special bus for people with disabilities. They come pick you up at your door and take you where you want to go--not always at the time you want to go, since they have a lot of calls, but pretty close. What brought you to Portland? Work. I needed work, and I couldn't find any in Salem or Keizer, which is my home area. After moving here, within six months I had a job. Is that the same job you have now? Yes, at U.S. Bank in customer service, where I help people over the phone with their accounts, checking, savings, time deposits, credit lines, loans--the whole spectrum. Was U.S. Bank pretty accommodating for you? Very. U.S. Bank had had a blind employee before. They were very open to having another blind person; they already had most of the equipment I needed, and Oregon Commission for the Blind provided the rest of the equipment. My computer is set up so it has a voice output and Braille output at the same time. How do you listen to someone over the phone and to the computer at the same time? That was a difficult talent to learn. I wear two headsets--one for the phone, one for the computer--so I hear the phone in the right ear and the computer in the left. It was hard to get used to at first, but I'm very used to it now. According to the Census Bureau, only 25 percent of working-age Americans with severe visual impairments are employed. Why do you think this average is so low? I would say probably a large portion of people are unemployed because employers are afraid of what it will cost the business to hire a blind person. Some employers are not as open to a visually impaired or disabled person coming to work, and some blind people don't want to work; they'd rather just stay home and not risk being out there. But in most cases you will find that they [blind workers] are more dedicated, more loyal. They will be there on time, and they can do just as good a job, possibly even better. Do you have any vision at all? I have light perception in my left eye only, and I'm totally blind in my right eye. What I see is contrast. Within a 10- to 15-foot range, I can see dark against a light background and I can see light against dark backgrounds. I don't see shapes, but I can see that an object is there. Were you born with this? No, I became blind at the age of 6. I was born with a brain tumor that was lodged on top of my optic nerves. It went undetected until April 1960, when I was almost 6. That May, they did an experimental surgery to remove the brain tumor. At that time it was the size of a small grapefruit. The tumor destroyed the whole optic nerve on the right side and most of it on the left and destroyed all of the pituitary gland. In 1960 they weren't aware that a person could live without a pituitary gland. They thought the tumor was contagious. The surgery removed all the tumor but took 98 percent of my vision. You seem to have a very clear memory of what was happening to you at such a young age. It's a very clear and scary memory. Back then, parents didn't tell kids what was happening. I remember playing in the yard one nice day early in May, and a station wagon with a big red cross on top of it came up the driveway. The woman wouldn't get out of the car, and she told my mom that I had a brain tumor and had to be operated on right away. My mom started crying and I didn't know why. We went to the neighbors' and my dad came home in a company truck and we drove to the hospital, but I didn't know we were going to the hospital. The next thing I knew, I was being put into a bed with rails. I told them I was too big to be put in a crib. Then my parents disappeared and I didn't see them for two or three days. I remember being wheeled into the operation room on a gurney, and I thought the doctors were from another planet because they were all wearing gowns and masks. There was a cylinder above me with a light bulb and saw blade. My last visual memory was the saw blade coming down to open my skull. Were you under anesthesia? No, those were the days of ether. But I woke up very peaceful and I didn't question it [the blindness] until I was 16. What happened at 16? Well, in the 1960s, part of being a man--of manliness--was being able to drive a fast car, and I got angry because I couldn't do that. I treated everyone terribly for a year until I got through it. Did you go to public school? I started school at the Oregon State School for the Blind in Salem. Then I went to public high school, and that was a kind of culture shock going from a school of 50 students to 1,200. But I had a wonderful time in high school. I loved it. I graduated in 1974 and started working as a darkroom developer for a photo lab in Salem, which was fine until they did away with darkrooms. Then in 1987 I moved to Little Rock, Ark., where I was trained to go to work for the IRS as a telephone tax collector. Did you like working for the IRS? The job itself was not difficult because I knew enough about people to know that if you treat them with respect and courtesy, you get it back. I have the gift of patience. If someone was upset, I was able to listen and diffuse and resolve the situation and get the taxes paid, which was very satisfying in that sense. I did that for five years until I learned that my mom had cancer, and I moved back home and then came here. And you like Portland? I like Portland very much. There's a lot happening here, lots to do. I have taken folk dance lessons, and I used to go out to the Milwaukee Grange once a month for their Christian singles dance. I've done karaoke, and I currently play the drums for my church. I roller skate, I've co-piloted an airplane. I'm not afraid to do anything except maybe jump out of the plane. Portland is a great city. Most of the people here are pretty friendly and open, especially since I've got Laramie. It may seem obvious, but besides
companionship, what are some of the benefits of a guide dog? Laramie will lead me around any obstacles, where a cane will just show me, maybe, that there is an obstacle there. But what if that obstacle doesn't go all the way to the ground--for example, tree limbs or a parking meter? I was walking down the sidewalk in Southeast and there was a semi trailer parked across the sidewalk, and my cane went underneath the trailer so my face ended up right in the side of the trailer. With Laramie, I don't have to worry about things like that. I don't run into things at all anymore. When we get to a corner, he stops and he knows when to go. Do you think it's easier for you to be in an urban setting than a small town or rural area? Definitely. There's more available to you, it's easier to get around. In rural areas you don't have as many sidewalks. Although it's doable, it's harder to get around. What's your typical day? I'm usually up by 5:30 am. I do my exercise and exercise my dog, and I'm on the bus by 8:30, downtown by 9:15. I work from 9:30 until 2 pm, then go home to help out with cooking and housekeeping. In the evening I might work on my home-based business [Melaluca pharmaceutical products], which is working out quite well. You're not full time at U.S. Bank? No. I used to be, but I decided I needed more time at home to prepare for my adventure starting in January: I'm going to be attending Colorado Christian University in Denver for six years to get a master's degree in Christian family counseling. What inspired that? I've wanted to go to college for a long time. I didn't know if I wanted to be a pastor or counselor, but I made a promise to God 14 years ago that I would be a Christian counselor. Then when I found out it would take six to seven years of my life, I said, uh-uh. But when that call is upon your life, you have to do it. Right now I'm counseling people without any formal training other than life. So you're choosing that over Oregon? Yes, since U.S. Bank was just bought out by a bank in Minnesota. They do have branches in Denver, so I'm trying to get a transfer to stay with the company. I will miss Portland greatly; it's a very nice place to live. What do you think you'll miss the most? I think I'll miss the people the most. Though I found the people in Denver to be very friendly, this is home. The coast is just 60 miles away and the mountains are close by. I will miss that. What do you like about the
mountains? I like to fish. I'm a fisherman, and if I could, I'd like to go hunting, but I can't do that. I like being out in the wilderness, feeling nature. I'm sure I'll be happy in Denver, but it will be different--it's not the same as Portland. Almost all of my family is here in Oregon. I'll miss my children and grandchildren. When I got married last February, I inherited three children and eight grandchildren. I was married once before, in '85, and divorced in '94, so I've gone through that, too, and experienced those issues and been through marriage counseling myself. How did you and your wife meet? We met at the New Hope Community Church candlelight service last Christmas Eve, and we got married on Valentine's Day. Three days before the wedding, I broke my leg--I fell down walking over the Morrison Bridge. I stepped on a grate, it was raining and my feet went out from underneath me. I was in the hospital for five days, so we got married in the hospital. How much of a disadvantage do you think blindness is? The only disadvantage is that I can't read or drive, so I have to depend on others to get me places, usually. That's the biggest handicap. Blindness itself is not that bad once you get used to it. It depends on your outlook on life: You can either sit at home and feel sorry for yourself, or you can go out there and make life the best it can be. It doesn't do me any good to treat people harshly because I'm blind. Long ago I realized this: If I can't change something, it doesn't do me any good to complain about it. So I just live my life peacefully and do the best I can with my limitations. |
