Marcus Hannan Ray, Jr.

Marcus Hannan Ray, Jr., age 82, died at home on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Albuquerque, New Mexico after a lingering illness. Marcus was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 24, 1941, to Colonel Marcus H. Ray and Adine DuLuc Ray.

A professional civil engineer, Marcus received his BS in engineering from MIT in 1962. After graduation, he attended Imperial College of Science and Technology in London then returned to MIT to receive his MS in civil engineering in 1964. Marcus served in the US Army Corps of Engineers in Germany from 1964 to 1965. His professional career commenced in New York City in 1965 with F.W. Eversley and Co., Inc, at the time, one of the nation's largest minority groups owned construction companies. In the mid-1980s, Marcus moved to Philadelphia, PA to take on the position of Chief Engineer for Design and Construction for the Philadelphia Housing Authority. It was here that he met Miriam Merrick who was to become his wife in 1990. They moved to Atlanta where Marcus assumed the position of Chief Engineer for Construction for the Fulton County Schools. 

In 2006, Marcus and Miriam retired to Albuquerque, New Mexico. There, he remained active with the MIT Club of Albuquerque, and he served as the secretary of the Jazz Workshop of New Mexico. In 2011, always willing to take on a new challenge, Marcus volunteered to be the technician and sound engineer with the Albuquerque Rainbow Studio Theater production of the play, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange."

Marcus leaves behind his wife of thirty-three years, Miriam Merrick-Ray; his sister, Adine Ray Usher of Hartsdale, NY, his brother-in-law, Mears Merrick of Wilmington, NC, nephews Stephen Usher of Washington, DC and Lawrence Usher of Orlando, FL, and a niece, Hakennah Hulitt of Portage, Indiana. In addition to relatives, Marcus leaves a rich community of friends in Albuquerque who loved him and who highly valued his keen mind, his vast fund of knowledge and his riveting conversations.