Raymond Frank Mauss

Graduating from high school in 1939, during the hard financial times of the Dust Bowl, Ray and his father traveled to Bakersfield, California for hot, back-breaking work harvesting potatoes. At age 18, Ray enrolled in the Navy.  A month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he was sent to Hawaii as a corpsman on the Solace Hospital Ship. Later the ship sailed to the South Pacific, where in 24 missions, 12,000 wounded were evacuated to the US Main Operating Base (MOB) hospital in New Zealand. 

In 1944, now on the Bountiful Hospital Ship, Ray met Eileen, a Navy nurse lieutenant, and the two secretly “dated” for at least a year but couldn’t take leave together. They married November 26, 1945 and remained so for almost 65 years until Eileen’s passing in July 2010.

Ray’s innate smartness, warm personality, strong work ethic and organization and leadership skills propelled him through two successful careers, one for 20 years in the U.S. Navy, where he rose to the rank of chief petty officer, and another as a laboratory supplies salesman for McKesson Healthcare Corporation and Van Waters Roger (VWR). He was especially proud of his work supplying the research labs of UCSF and the Gladstone Institutes. 

Leadership was part of his DNA.  As a corpsman, Ray ran the crew’s sick bay on the Bountiful. Later, as a volunteer, he helped establish and manage the Memorial Prayer Garden for interment of ashes at the First Presbyterian Church in Burlingame. He also served on the resident board for his senior living community, The Versailles.   

Ray was a natural athlete, playing basketball in high school, pick-up softball with his grandchildren, and golf in retirement. He was a competitive trout fisherman during family trips to Wyoming with his siblings and enjoyed fish fries and beer in the evenings. 

Ray was fortunate to find romantic love twice. He married Donna Petersen on June 24, 2012 and they enjoyed traveling and quiet times at home, playing dominoes, doing the Boggle word game or discussing the news.

Ray is survived by daughter Nancy Clum; grandchildren Dane, Alicia and Brad (wife Kelila) Clum; great grandchildren Makayla and Kiara; second wife Donna Petersen and family; sister Pat Bredehoft (husband Roger Witte); sister Sharon Wallace and family; and honorary German daughter Claudia Freese.  He was preceded in death by his first wife Eileen; two infant children Shelley Lynn and Gregory James; son-in-law Merrill Clum; and brothers Vincent and Bob.

Private services are pending.