I'm just seeing this. Yes. He was referring to Benjamin Gollaher as his uncle from Larue County, Kentucky... a childhood friend of Abraham Lincoln.  Benjamin Gollaher was my 5th great uncle. Ray was my grandmother's brother.  RIP

I just found this tonight.  I'm sorry to see Uncle Ray passed away.  I lost contact with him about 3 years ago.  I used to call him, then I couldn't reach him at the phone number I had.
Uncle Ray was my father's brother (James D.  "Jim" Nelson).  I remember visits from him, Aunt Gene, Mike and Steve to Kentucky, and once we visited them in California.
I was always proud of Uncle Ray for his service in WWII, along with Uncle George and my Dad.
I visited Uncle Ray a couple of times when I was stationed in California.  I will miss him.  God Bless Uncle Ray and all his family.
Greg Nelson, Brigadier General, USAF, Retired

Charles R. Nelson
  Grandpa as everyone refers to him including grandma. Had A very interesting past he almost never spoke of. Kept so much to himself, served his country well. In high school I worked at a gas station in San Jose. Told him one day that when the mechanic got slow he would worked the pumps until a customer let him  get under the hood to check the oil. Then would put a big cut in the fan belt, explaining to  the the customer they needed a new one.  Grandpa about exploded, is that what happened. He told that early on he lived in Northern California, worked at a secret radar site on an island off the southern  California coast, watching for bombers from ? Who might be attacking the U.S.. He said so many times he had to pay to get the fan belt replaced.  At this time he said he once had a security clearance higher than the president of the United States. He never spoke of that again. When  certain discussions came up he would say what is your security clearance level angrily. Never repeating the radar site story.

Charles R Nelson
   A little about grandpa. Grandpa had a very interesting past he almost never spoke about. He took so much to the grave with him, serving his country well. He spoke about in WW 2 he served in the navy which had a big impact on his life. He had both children join something like the sea cadets. Grandpa said he served on a LST or landing ship transport, he referred to it as the nickname long slow trip. He was also a medic. He mentioned he worked on the Manhattan project a couple of times. He was so quiet lipped about all of this. I was born in Livermore California, grandpa worked at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Not much brother grandpa. One cold dark evening as a child when he was study something at the kitchen table which he did so very much at night,  while at the table he told a story that bothered him. He never let on about much but he was bothered that once while walking down a hallway there he saw three men walk out of the containment building with mop and buckets, he asked what they where doing they were doing, they explained they went in the room like good janitors to mop up some water. He explained radioactive material at that time was so secretive there was no markings of any kind anywhere of what was there. He was bothered they couldn’t tell the men go home, you have a few months to live, get your affairs in order. You just mopped up lots of radioactive water. Grandpa also worked at Stanford Linear Accelerator. He said very little about working on the Manhattan project other than when they lit of the first nuclear weapon they did not know for sure if they chain reaction was going to spread and engulf the whole planet. This bothered him. But so little did. He didn’t let on. Interesting  past he had so few knew about. He relayed  great great great uncle Benny something or another saved Abraham’s life. He also attend foothill college, I remember him taking me there as a child. 

OBITUARY

Charles Ray Nelson

September 15, 1920 – January 6, 2020

Oak Hill Funeral Home & Memorial Park

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