ARLINGTON — Ray McClure was born at Arlington General Hospital Oct. 5, 1929, and later went on to serve as a hospital district commissioner for 24 years. Ten of those years were spent as chairman of the board.
“There was a major expansion of the hospital under Ray’s leadership,” said Dale Duskin, who joined McClure in co-chairing the committee that worked to pass the $5 million bond issue for the Cascade Valley Hospital’s newest addition in 2010. It received more than a 72 percent positive vote.
For this and other civic-minded deeds, McClure received the Stillaguamish Senior Center’s 11th annual Community Lifetime Achievement Award April 20.
“If I could only say one thing about Ray, it’s that he is intentional,” Duskin said. “He prefers to work behind the scenes, but it takes a big man to be the leader that he’s been. What we do in private shows in public.”
After a stint at Boeing and a couple of milling operations, McClure began working at Twin City Foods in 1954. The Lervick family was establishing a new business processing frozen vegetables in Stanwood, and Ray started in the fields before he became the company’s sales manager.
McClure retired as of vice president of sales and marketing for Twin City Foods in 1992.
Of McClure’s sons, Mark was born in 1952, Jeff was born in 1955 and Mike in 1960. While they were growing up, McClure coached Little League baseball several years for a team sponsored by Cordz Battery.
Mark spoke for the rest of the family when he expressed his pride in his father’s accomplishments.
“There are people who talk a good game, and then there are people who just do it,” Mark said. “Dad never really talked about what he did on the hospital board. He just made sure it happened.”
Mark credited his father with treating everyone fairly.
“It takes a special kind of person to be able to hear everyone out,” Mark said. “Dad was as good a friend to the guy on the line as he was to the CEO.”
Both father and son agreed that much of McClure’s success owed to the support of his wife, Merilyn Peterson, whom he met in high school and started dating at 16, before his confirmation at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Arlington at 17.
“It wouldn’t have happened without someone as strong as her behind him,” Mark said.
McClure added: “She’s been the rock of this family.”
As freshmen, Merilyn was class president and Ray the class secretary/treasurer, Duskin said. “Ray says he’s been serving the president ever since.”
The couple was married there in 1950, and since then, he’s not only served on the pastor search committee, but also organized a group from the church to recover time dated foods from grocery stories for the Arlington Community Food Bank.
In 2007, the McClures were selected as grand marshals of the Frontier Days Fourth of July Grand Parade. The next year, the Arlington Masonic Lodge awarded Ray the Howard A. Christianson Outstanding Citizenship Award.
In 1963, the McClures built a home on the same 10 acres where Ray grew up, and they still live there today. They have seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, and have traveled to more than 10 countries.
“My dad drilled into our heads that you do something right or you don’t do it at all,” Mark said. “He lived as an example of that.”
