Larry Edward McCray

Mr. McCray was born in Clarksburg, W.V. on October 6, 1939. He was the son of Edward Payson McCray, a marine co-pilot MIA over Guam in WWII. His mother was the late Margery “Mickie” Thompson Vernon and was the stepson of the late Wayne Vernon of Alexandria, VA.

After graduating McLean High School in Arlington, VA., Mr. McCray honorably served in the U.S. Navy for 6 years during the Cuban Crisis aboard the U.S.S. Bushnell and the U.S.S. Great Sitkin.

Mr. McCray entered a career in mainframe computer programming and graduated from Northern Virginia Community College in Business/Computer Science.

Mr. McCray’s first position was with the U.S. Treasury Department, Washington, DC. Other positions held during the mid-1960s and 1980s included such companies as U.S. Department of Energy and Transportation, the Pentagon, United Airlines, WANG Labs, Honeywell Electro, Fidelity Systems, Bay Banks of Boston, etc. Mr. McCray became program manager with Shraft Candy and AIG Financial and was a project leader with BC/BS of Boston, MA.

Mr. McCray formed an independent contracting service as LEMC, Inc. in Derry, NH. in the mid-1980s and served such businesses as GTE Sylvania Government Systems, railroad, architectural, medical and research groups. Mr. McCray re-located to the Southern California Silicon Valley area in the mid-1990s and contracted with such entities as Wells Fargo, American Sterling (Irvine, CA.), Kaiser-Permanente and MINKA Group (Corona, CA.).

Mr. McCray retired from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Columbia, S.C. as a Sr. Programmer Analyst II.

Mr. McCray was a member of the American Legion and a past member of the Robert Burns Society of the Midlands, the Columbia Museum of Art, the Columbia City Ballet, and the Lake Murray Power Squadron. Mr. McCray was also a published author of poems entitled “Lives of Love.”

Mr. McCray’s favorite past-times were playing pool, chess, boating, snow skiing, karaoke, reading and was a lifetime avid Washington Redskins fan.

Survivors of Mr. McCray are his wife Sue R. McCray of Shallotte, N.C., son Shaun P. McCray and wife, Linda, of Mission Viejo, CA., daughter Melissa McCray-Stitt and husband, Steve, of Murrieta, CA., stepdaughter Jill P. Ogden and husband, Chris, of Lexington, SC., stepson Dustan W. Padgett and wife, Kathryn, of Oxford, AL., five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, three step-grandchildren and one great step-grandchild.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the ALS Foundation, the Coastal Cancer Center of Myrtle Beach, S.C., the Lower Cape Fear Hospice and Life Care Center of Wilmington, N.C., the Neptune Society of America or the Adopt-An-Angel Foundation for animals.

A celebration of life memorial service with military honors will be held Saturday, February 7th, 2015 at 3 pm at Coble-Ward-Smith Funeral Services in Supply, N.C.

You may offer online condolences at www.coblewardsmithsupply.com

Coble Ward-Smith Funeral and Cremation Service, 603 Ocean Hwy., Supply, NC (910) 754-6848