Raymond Everett Flake Jr.
1/16/1924 - 4/23/2024
Raymond E. Flake was born on January 16, 1924. He grew up in Chicago near Wrigley Field, where the kids in the neighborhood used to wait outside the stadium on game days to catch a lucky homerun ball. His love of music began early with piano lessons, and he sang in front of a music store to attract customers. At the age of nine, he overcame a severe bout of osteomyelitis, a disease that was then frequently fatal, showing the resilience early on that would characterize his life. His love of nature came early on as well, as he studied insects and began a museum-worthy collection of beetles and butterflies.
He attended college at Valparaiso University before going into the army infantry to serve in World War II. He enrolled in premed studies at Baylor University, where he met the love of his life, Sue Goodwin, a beautiful auburn-haired music major, on a tennis court. They married in 1945. He attended Baylor Medical School, where he graduated at the top of his class. He entered the naval reserves, where he attained the rank of Lt.Commander, serving in Japan and Korea.
After completing his internship in Chicago and residency in Houston, he moved the family to Lake Jackson to serve as company physician at Dow Chemical Company's Industrial Medicine in Freeport. The coastal location near woods, rivers and the Gulf proved to be ideal for a nature lover. He would often bring home wounded birds or animals, including baby possums and a screech owl, that he had discovered in his walks. He hunted and fished and wound up building a cabin in the Texas Hill Country, where his children and grandchildren would come to learn to love nature as he did. From being a deer hunter he became a protector and conservator of the land around him. For many years, he was a member of the Brazoria County Muckers, a group of inquisitive naturalists who loved to muddy their boots in the area's marshy wildlife preserves.
His love of nature also spilled over into his passion for photography, as he painstakingly catalogued and photographed the many birds, butterflies and wildflowers he encountered in the Hill Country. An expert woodworker, he framed many of his photographs.
Travel and music were always a part of life for his family, as he included them in a number of journeys in a camper, including a visit to Expo 67 in Montreal. He and Sue visited Europe, using a Eurail pass to travel to several countries by train. He continued to play the piano well into his nineties, and he was a longtime member of the First Baptist Church of Lake Jackson choir, where he was often a soloist, with his distinctive tenor voice. His children remember their home always being full of music.
He is survived by his daughters Carol Flake Chapman, Ellen Walters and her husband Glen, Kathleen Morton and her husband Brad, by his son Cary Flake and his wife Teresa, by his grandchildren Chase Walters, Madison Weaver, Matt Morton, Amy Kelly, Cassie Flake, Katie Echols, Kori Miller, Christopher Flake, Collin Flake and Carson Flake, and by his great grandchildren. Services will be held 10am on Friday, April 26, 2024 at Lakewood Funeral Chapel. Burial at Restwood Memorial Park will immediately follow the service. Pall bearers will be Matt Morton, Cary Flake, Collin Flake, Blaine Echols, Brad Morton, Glen Walters, Chase Walters and Bobby Weaver. The family would like to extend special thanks to the caregivers who added immeasurably to the quality of life Dr. Flake experienced in his last years.
Arrangements by the Turner Family. Online condolences may be sent to lakewoodfuneralchapel.com
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