[Magdalen] Prayers & prayer pats requested: Ray Cole, myself (long)

[Jay Weigel]

Cady, I am sorry for your loss. It sucks to lose a friend. I'm losing too
many of those in recent times. Many hugs and prayers coming your way!

As to the atrial fib, it is not quite as big a deal as a lot of
cardiologists would like you to think it is. It is somewhat of a BFD in
that yes, there are some Bad Things that *can* happen, but mostly they
don't. Lots of people walk around in a-fib every day )many of them without
even knowing it until it's called to their attention by their doctors),
including my father and our sister Molly Wolf. As long as the rate is
regular and not too fast, and you have no weird fast/slow stuff like my dad
eventually did and no further clotting problems, you should be able to walk
around with it just fine if the procedures don't correct it.

On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 6:51 PM, cady soukup <cadyasoukup at gmail.com> wrote:

A very good friend died last Thursday, Ray Cole. A caver, husband,


father, electrical engineer, photographer, and just a wonderful guy. A


great loss. His wife is of diminished capacity - I hope she is well


cared for.





I found out yesterday that I am walking around in atrial fibrillation


all the time now, likely a result of the pulmonary embolism episode.


The (first?) procedure to attempt to correct it will be Feb 4 - a long


time away!





 hope to go to Rays funeral on Friday, and tomorrow night is our


church's celebration of a new ministry for our new rector H. Miller


Hunter.





Thanks - Cady





Below is what I wrote to Ray's son Mike Cole to give you a flavor of


our friendship:





Your father was a wonderful man, he certainly gave you a lot of tools


for living life well!





I've known Ray since 1972, when I moved into the DC area to attend


graduate school at University of Maryland in marine biology. Ray (and


Paul Stevens) "adopted" me as a project caver (after I showed up twice


on an Organ Cave project weekend and proved to be an experienced caver


& not afraid of caving with the likes of Mike Dyas and 15 other men).


I spent a lot of time in Organ Cave in the early-to-mid 1970's with


Ray and Paul. I think it was the whitewater trip taken with Diana


Northup and Bob Willskey, during which Bob Willskey died in an


accident (and trying to mentor Keith Conover's enthusiasm for all


things outdoors and medical!), that started Ray's interest in setting


up a mid-atlantic search and rescue group.





In the 1980's, after a time in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins, I ended up


back in the DC area again, and did more caving, mostly with Roberta


Swicegood. At that time I became interested in the search and rescue


group that Ray, Keith Conover, and Gene Harrison started. I joined the


Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group (SMRG), one of the Appalachian Search


and Rescue Groups (ASRC) and, with the vertical training/experience


from caving ended up doing almost as much search and rescue (training


and missions) as I was going caving. We had an amazing technical


rescue from Old Rag Mountain (I now have lived about 5 miles east of


the mountain for over 25 years) that included the radios and


communications Ray had worked hard to obtain and maintain. By that


time, you were born, and Ray wasn't as active on field missions as he


had been earlier.





Then, in 2001, I volunteered to assist with the National Speleological


Society Photo Salon, then a competition for cave photography film


slides. Paul Stevens had been handling it with his wife Lee Stevens


for several years. Talking to Paul, I wasn't sure at all if my offer


was attractive, but he said he would get back to me (typical Paul!).


He did get back to me with a counter offer - Ray Cole would be


principle and I would assist him. Good enough! Ray and I started


handling the annual NSS Photo Salon and, in 2006, the entire Salon


Awards Show. Ray's expertise with radios (stage communications), stage


craft (all sorts of behind-the-scenes gizmos to make everything work),


and photography were key elements of the show. We were all sad when he


"retired" from his position in 2012.





For the Photo Salon, Ray worked hard on the transition between all


film slides to all digital photographs, starting in 2006 and now


complete. Ray provided in-depth expert and kind photographic critiques


to new cave photographers, had an enormous group of photographers that


he kept in touch with who he would cajole into entering every year,


and was respected at every level of photography, caving, electronics,


and living.





There are so few people as kind, honorable, knowledgeable, all about


follow-through, and experienced as Ray. It is with a very heavy heart


that I say good bye to him.