Biography
Ray was a Life Member of the Australian Coal Preparation Society. He was a long serving member of the Queensland Society. He was appointed Head of the Department of Mining & Metallurgy Engineering at the University of Queensland in 1967 (same year as the Queensland Society was formed).
Queensland Committee:
- 14 years on the Committee – 1968-69 until 1981-82
- 2 years as Chairman – 1975-76 – 1976-77
- 2 years as Vice-chairman – 1971-72 – 1972-73.
Conferences:
- Editor of the 2nd ACPS Conference, Rockhampton, 1983
- 1 Technical Committee.
Courses:
- Joined the Queensland Committee in 1968 and was instrumental in establishing the initial Coal Preparation course by the Queensland Society shortly after.
- Introduced the Birdie Creek Project to the Queensland Advanced Course.
After retiring from UQ in 1985, he was able to devote his full attention to heritage, in particular the history of coal mining in Queensland. In all he produced some forty heritage related papers in addition to six books. His outstanding achievements in engineering heritage were recognized by the award of the John Monash medal for Engineering Heritage in 2005.
Ray was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1994 in recognition of his service to mining and metallurgical engineering and to engineering history, heritage and industrial archaeology.
He passed away on 20 December 2008 aged 88.