Another longtime family friend passed away this week, our good bud Ray Brownfield of Quicksburg, in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. He had struggled for several years with pancreatic cancer.
Ray was a retired Army colonel, former commander of the Ranger School, and fellow Vietnam combat veteran. He was always especially interested in Mr. Boy on our infrequent visits to Reveille Vineyard, jointly operated by Ray and Mr. B.’s godfather Richard Torovsky, the last time in 2011.
Ray, an Army brat, was born in Washington, D.C. But home was Brownfield, a town in West Texas between Lubbock and Odessa that was named for one of his ancestors. He and Richard were Citadel graduates and Ray also had graduated in 1964 from the Staunton Military Academy, a Virginia prep school which closed in 1976. My Corsicana great grandfather was a graduate of Staunton’s first military class in 1890.
Ray was a prominent Shenandoah Valley Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for public office in the largely Republican area. We argued frequently about politics in email exchanges, but it never got in the way of the friendship. As Ray often said to folks he liked, you were a great American, Mr. Brownfield.
And we and the country will miss you.
UPDATE: Ray’s obituary appeared in the Northern Virginia Daily on Feb. 26.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Sounds like a good man. RIP.