Raymond "Ray" George Spicer
(November 19, 1947 – April 21, 2022)

Our beloved Raymond "Ray" George Spicer passed away peacefully at his home on the banks of the Fox River on April 21, 2022, in Omro, Wisconsin. His loving wife Erlinda and daughter Gehan Pascual were by his side. Ray was surrounded by everything that he held dearest – his family, his photographs, and his cameras, near the darkroom where he spent many hours developing film and printing his fine art black and white photographs.

Ray was born on November 19, 1947 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the only child to parents Myron and LaVonne Spicer. Ray credited his parents for giving him the best of childhoods. They were a very loving and close family. He enjoyed fishing with his dad, searching for night crawlers, and setting fishing lines in order to haul in a catch of catfish later in the day. Growing up in the Iowa countryside, he spent countless hours playing outdoors and would often come home well after dark to burnt food that his mom had cooked hours before. During the summers he worked baling hay on a neighboring farm. He graduated from Washington Senior High School in Cedar Rapids in 1966.

Ray attended Ellsworth Community College, where he played football until he was diagnosed with bone cancer and his leg was amputated. This, more than anything, changed his life's direction, and affected him in so many ways, including phantom pains, mobility issues, and the discouragement they caused. However, this did not prevent him from having a very full life.

In 1975, Ray graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a MA degree in Business Education. He was offered a job in Melbourne, Australia as a high school business/typing teacher. It was in Australia that he bought his first camera, an Olympus OM-1. His fascination with photography had begun, and like a moth to flame, he desired to learn more. When Ray returned to the States, he got another teaching job and lived above a photographer's studio in Dodgeville, WI, where he was able to use the darkroom in the basement.

Ray took his first life-changing photography class in 1978 with teacher John Puffer. This period in his life not only clarified just what kind of photography he was destined to do, but that he was, in fact, an artist, and that he loved to make art using Photography. In 1981, Ray attended a national photography conference in California where he met and shook hands with Ansel Adams. As Ray introduced his photography professor at the time, John Schulze ("best photography teacher in the world") to Adams, Ray realized the two already knew each other. Ray said he was "very lucky to have good teachers." One of Ray's early photography projects focused on his bout with bone cancer, the disease that took his right leg.

During the summers from 1982-85 Ray attended and was a resident instructor at the Tahoe Photographic Workshops. While at the workshops, Ray was an assistant to a parade of legendary photographers, including George Tice, Mary Ellen Mark, John Sexton, Marie Cosindas, Cole Weston, Judy Dater, and Eugene Richards. It was here that Ray learned more about photography technique than anywhere else. There he really refined his skills and created so many lovely portraits of the people he met. Ray was an excellent printer, and an even better observer of subjects. His exposures and compositions were very carefully thought out in advance, and he interpreted the scene in his own very individual manner. He very much enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the workshops, and would later recreate that atmosphere into his classrooms.

Cross-country drives to the California photography workshops inspired a body of work based off the dreaded 400-mile stretch across Nebraska. Gradually Ray became intrigued by the landscape and its inhabitants. He purchased a home in one of the small Nebraska towns and used it as a base for his photographic project.
Ray's desire to teach photography at the college level led him to graduate from the University of Iowa with a MA degree in Photography in 1985 and a MFA in 1986. Ray accepted a photography teaching position at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh where he would spend 19 years as a dearly loved, admired and respected Professor of Photography.

In total Ray had 37 individual and group photography exhibitions, both internationally and in the US. He was asked to be a guest lecturer/artist at nine universities from Australia to California and throughout the Midwest. Ray's photographic work was published in magazines and newspapers, and featured on television throughout his career.

Ray and Erlinda's love story is unique in the fact that they met while Ray was living in Wisconsin and Erlinda in Saipan (an island territory of the US). Through the miracle of the internet they were able to talk for hours, bonding over their shared faith and values, planting deep roots for their love story to grow from. Erlinda and Gehan were an answer to Ray's prayers. The couple became engaged in 2009, and the trio joyfully became a family when Ray and Erlinda were married on October 24, 2014 in Oshkosh, WI.

To have known Ray is to have loved Ray. He was a big teddy bear with a wicked sense of humor. He loved his homegrown tomatoes, playing the guitar and listening to music (especially Greg Brown), strong women, Nebraska, and teaching. He was often seen driving around in rusty cars, and in his later years escorting his sweet mother around and taking care of her. He would find great delight in big "secret" Costco runs with his daughter Gehan and then surprising his wife with their bounty. He was a devoted son, husband, father, mentor, professor, photographer, and friend. He loved his students as if they were his children - if you were a student of his, you were in for a life-long friendship with him. Ray was generous, not only with his time (often staying late to help students after class), but with genuine care for anyone lucky enough to cross his path. He was a kind and gentle soul and so much fun to be around. His faith was deep and it is because of his personal relationship with Jesus Christ that we are comforted to know with certainty that Ray is in paradise with his Savior.

Ray is preceded in death by his parents, Myron and LaVonne Spicer. He is survived by his wife, Erlinda, daughter Gehan, and Spicer and Miller family cousins.

A Celebration of Life service will be held on Friday, May 13, 2022 at 4 pm at Kwiatkowski Funeral Home, 425 Jefferson Ave., Omro, WI. A social reception will immediately follow.

Ray, you will be missed beyond measure. We love you very much! Thank you for being our source of constant inspiration and encouragement. You will forever be our Ray of sunshine.