(1944 – 2012)
After leaving school, Ray had joined the Passionist Order, living in monasteries for five years before discerning that religious life was not for him. So he enrolled in a Bachelor of Social Work degree at Sydney University, majoring in psychology, and graduated with First Class Honours in 1971. He worked at the Department of Social Security, and took leave-of-absence from there whilst he completed his Master’s Degree in Social Work.
His extensive clinical “practicum” as part of his Masters study included specialising in marriage counselling. In later years he researched love and marriage topics extensively and saw the value of a comprehensive pre-marriage education course for young couples.
In mid-1978 Ray was recruited to the Archdiocese of Sydney’s Catholic Family Services as Deputy Director, based at Parramatta. When the new Diocese of Parramatta was formed in 1986, Ray was appointed as the inaugural Director of Centacare Catholic Social Services at Parramatta.
Despite his considerable administrative duties, Ray continued his work as a counsellor and was actively involved in staff training and clinical supervision. He was a registered psychologist (MAPS) and in later years lectured part-time in Social Work at the Australian Catholic University (ACU).
Ray dedicated much of his life to counselling those in the community who experienced psychological or emotional pain or distress. Assisting people affected by sexual abuse became a focus of Ray’s work, directly in counselling those who had been abused and indirectly by providing training and supervision for others working in this field.