Passing of Ray Hess - 92 years

[Greenmonster]

My friend Ray Hess passed away on May 26 in Palm Springs, he was 92 years old. Ray had been collecting since the 1930s, actually opened Batter Ups packs as a 13 year old collector. Ray was a humble guy about his collecting and his collection, he had all of his childhood cards well into the 1980s and continued to collect through to the 21st century. Eighty years of collecting baseball cards, postcards, signatures, figures, bats (store model Joe Jackson comes to mind), programs, guides, you name it and Ray would collect it.

Ray was most proud of the friends he collected over the years in the hobby, including hobby pioneers, Ray Medeiros, Lionel Carter, Charles Bray, Preston Orem, Buck Barker, Elwood Scharf, Bob Jaspersen and "the kid" Mike Jaspersen. He also befriended a young JC Baseball coach by the name of Dave Trembley who called Ray from the Astros clubhouse to check up on him just a few days before his passing.

How many people do you know that can say they saw Babe Ruth play his last game as a member of the Boston Braves at old Baker Bowl? I'm going to guess Ray was the last one still in attendance, in 2013, from that game.

Ray was a good friend, I'm going to miss him very much. For those that would like to send condolences to the family - Gretchen Woolf, PO Box 1916, Jacksonville, OR 97530

I would like to thank Tom Bartsch of SCD for making available this wonderful article about Ray that was recently published in SCD, here's the link

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.co...n-in-the-hobby