Ray Winn has taken his leave at the tender age of 91. Yes — in the lamplit evening of his long day, Ray may have presented to the casual observer as a reserved and reticent older gentleman with a kindly smile. We respectfully ask that you not buy into this ruse. Ray Winn’s hypersonic jitterbug from birth to curtain was not a “journey” but a frantic warp-speed rocket ride seasoned with surprises, joys, summits, epiphanies, and revelatory loves like an ongoing shower of sparks.
Ray and his partner Peter Kavoian were known for the magnetic fundraisers they mounted in their residence for Santa Barbara’s indefatigable nonprofits, including the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, CALM, Music Academy of the West, the American Heart Association, Cottage Hospital, Pacific Pride, Catholic Charities, and a host of others — reflexive giving surely catalyzed by Ray’s own experiences.
Ray was born in austere circumstances in coal-mining town Price, Utah. The year was 1934. Before long, his loving and beleaguered single mom relocated Ray and his remaining brothers to Las Vegas, Nevada; at that time, it was a questionable desert oasis of some 8,200 souls.