College Mourns Loss of Ray Warren

Guindel “Ray” Warren was born on January 9, 1942, in the Pleasant Hill community near Linden, Texas. He was the first of seven children born to Emanuel Warren and Elizabeth Turner Warren. He accepted Christ at age 12 at the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, and after relocating to Portland, worshiped at the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church where he sang in the choir, served on the Usher Board, and served as a Jr. Deacon. He rededicated his life to the Lord and Mt. Zion Church under Pastor Will Warren earlier this year.

Ray excelled in academics at the one-room Pleasant Hill Community School….so much so that his teachers skipped him from 2nd to 4th grade. He attended Fairview High School in Linden before his family moved to Portland in 1957, when he enrolled at Jefferson High School.

He was a good student in high school, and he was an absolute stand-out baseball player, pitching his team to a state championship in 1959, the year he graduated from high school.

Ray attended Clark Junior College in Vancouver for two years, and then transferred to Lewis & Clark College. He always laughed and said of his time at Lewis & Clark, “I was on the basketball team, but I played baseball!” He went on to earn both a B.A. and M.A. at Lewis & Clark College. He served in the U.S. Army from 1965-1967, including a tour in Vietnam, and returned to Portland to teach school.

Ray married Sheryl Fogle on March 20, 1971. Their daughter, Melinda Elizabeth (Mindy), now 32, became a part of their family in 1973. Ray was also the father of Derek J. Warren, now 35.

Ray was selected as Associate Dean of Admissions at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, in 1971. Thus started his lifelong love of working with college students, helping to ensure success in their undergraduate studies. He stayed at Whitman for 7 years, and after a 7-year foray into the commercial banking world, he came back to work with students at Reed College from 1984-1987; he left Reed to join the Lewis & Clark Admissions Staff in 1987. In 1992, he was named Associate Dean of Students, and Director of the Ethnic Student Services program. He loved the College and he cared deeply not only for students of color, but for all students at the College...and he cared deeply about the mission and values of the College itself as he worked with his colleagues to effect the change—however incremental—needed to make the College the most welcoming, diverse community possible.

Ray approached everything in his life with enthusiasm and humor! He played racquetball with abandon until early this year (and defeated opponents many years his junior!) and he was passionate about playing golf. And if you knew Ray, you knew he was “frugal,” and he and his buddies were always looking for good golf deals and complimentary rounds of play! His other passion was cooking, and he was good! Nothing made him happier than having a houseful of students over for dinner, which he would prepare himself...or having family and friends for dinner or a party—all excuses to prepare his favorite dishes!

Ray’s family meant the world to him, and two of his family efforts came to fruition this year…the completion of the Warren Genealogy Project which culminated with the publishing of the book “Portraits of the Warren Family,” and the Pleasant Hill Homecoming Reunion held in July in Portland.

Ray’s father preceded him in death in 1997. He is survived by his wife, Sheryl; daughter Mindy and son Derek; mother Elizabeth, and his siblings Ann Warren Bowens, Gary, Jerry, Regina, Will, and Sandra Warren Jackson, and his many nieces and nephews.