The loyalty and friendship with the late Past Rotary International President grew from when he attended the University of Cape Town as an Ambassadorial Scholar. During his term of office, he arranged to visit Cape Town and his alma mater for a reunion which was two-fold – reconnect Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars and Alumni (ie Group Study Exchange participants) – beneficiaries of the Rotary Foundation. An event was also held at the old BMW Pavilion in the V&A Waterfront for all Rotarians, distinguished and well-known guest speakers. Our District 9350 Governor at the time was Shan Biesman Simons – the theme for their year was “Building Communities – Bridging Continents”.

This is a snippet from Shan’s post on Fb at the time, with a pic below: ” During his year as a Rotary Scholar Ray decided that the best way to repay Rotary was to eventually serve as a District Governor! He joined Rotary in 1965 and was selected as District Governor for the 1975/1976 Rotary year. He subsequently accepted other Rotary roles and was our Rotary International President in 2010/2011. Past RI President Ray has come back to our lovely city to take part in various Rotary conferences and events.”

Ray was a remarkable human being, incredibly humble and greatly admired and loved. His strong support of District 9350 encouraged our District to remain strong and not merge because of membership, for which we are deeply grateful. We will honour our commitment!