Ray Beecher (2022)

Ray Beecher was born in1917 and moved from the New York City area with his family in 1927.  His father Valentine built and operated The Cabin.  Ray graduated from Greenville High School in 1934. 

            Ray served in both the Pacific and European Theatres in WWII.  He went on to teach at Coxsackie Correctional Facility and moved to a riverside estate in Coxsackie with his beloved wife Catharine.

He had a distinguished tenure as the Greene County Historian.   

Ray researched primary sources: diaries, newspapers, correspondence, business records, photographs, material which usually no one else had looked at before.  All the while he created a record in his mind of names, places, and dates, which no one else could match.  Then he wrote it down.

            Ray wrote a newspaper column on local history for local newspapers every week for over twenty years.  He wrote dozens of scholarly articles for the Greene County Historical Society Journal.  He wrote or edited seven books, including Out to Greenville.   

            Ray’s generous financial contributions seeded the preservation of the Thomas Cole House and the construction of the Vedder Research Library.

He led by example.  When he was 86 years old, he was carrying boxes full of items for the Historical Society yard sale out of the attic of an old house.  He had gotten there early and couldn't wait, so that most of the work was done by the time the younger people arrived.  You could tell Ray what he shouldn't be doing, and he'd say yes, yes, yes, and then do what he wanted. He passed away in 2008.

 - written by long-term friend Ted Hilscher