On Sunday, April 30, 2023, Raymond Wile departed this earth to meet his Lord and Savior, the Christ of eternal life. Mr. Wile was a committed Christian throughout his life and was a member of the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church here in Virginia. He was an active church member in the many locations where he had lived and was an elder in the Liberty Presbyterian Church in Missouri.
Ray grew up in a small town near the Allegheny River north of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania where he enjoyed the beauties of nature and golfing with his Uncle Albert. He was an excellent student, along with his older brother Wayne Wile. Ray chose to apply to Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia for his senior year of high school. He was accepted, sold a second-hand car for the tuition, and hiked from Pennsylvania to Virginia to fulfill that dream. He graduated second in his class, making both himself and his parents, Elmer and Leeannetta Wile, quite pleased with his military school decision. He stayed actively engaged with F.U.M.A. and served on their board for many years.
Ray's next choice of schooling was Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., where he majored in chemical engineering. Upon graduation, he worked at the Armstrong Cork Company in Lancaster, Pa. for five years. Following that, he worked at the National Chemsearch Corporation in Irving, Texas for ten years, where he was the head chemist and inventor of new products and participated in some of the sales opportunities. From there, and with his new partner of marketing, Edward Rose, Ray and Ed established their own chemical specialties company. Their product distribution eventually reached across the United States and into parts of Europe from a greatly expanded enterprise in Kansas.
Ray and his wife Martha made their home in Liberty, Missouri during these years. They had married following college and had become the parents of five children by the time they settled in Missouri. The children are two sons, Randall and Marshall (Alexandra) and three daughters, Susan, Leslie (Raymond) and Marianne.
The family has chosen to hold a private memorial service at a later date in western Pennsylvania, the land of Ray's youth. Interment will take place in Fair Oaks Cemetery near New Wilmington, Pa.
The Wile family wishes to express their loving gratitude to all of the many dear friends from Williamsburg and afar who have supported them through their twenty-three years locally and through Ray's final illness. If any wish to make a gift in Ray's name, please do so to your own choice of charity.
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