Ray Leon Medford, Ed. D.

RAY LEON MEDFORD, Ed. D.

June 3, 1937 - October 27, 2024

Dr. Ray Leon Medford, long-time resident of Gastonia and a major presence in the local education scene throughout his long career, died on October 27, 2024, while recovering from abdominal surgery at CaroMont Regional Medical Center. He was 87 years of age.

Dr. Medford was born in Barnardsville, NC, some 20 miles north of Asheville, the eldest son of Frank and Esther Medford. He and his brother, Gene, spent their early years in the mountain village and later lived with their maternal grandparents there while their parents moved around the South where Frank supervised various construction projects. Frank also worked on the Fontana Dam and, later, the Oak Ridge TN, plutonium and uranium enrichment plant.

In 1943, Ray attend the first grade at Barnardsville Grade School. When his parents moved to Brunswck, GA, where Frank was building housing for local shipyard workers, Ray transferred to the Arden Grade School south of Asheville where his grandparents were looking after the farm owned by his great uncle who had been called to duty in WWII.

 The family, now including baby Ruth Virginia, was reunited near the end of the war when Frank and Esther bought a home in Weaverville where the boys continued their education. However, in early 1947, Frank took the family to Lafayette, TN where he was supervising construction of a silk factory, then on to Douglasville, GA to build a new municipal water processing facility. The boys gamely followed suit, enrolling in the local schools. A final construction project in Columbia, SC saw the boys returned to their grandparent’s care in Barnardsville where Ray completed the 6th grade and Gene the 3rd. The family reunited in Weaverville the next year and remained there throughout the remainder of the children’s schooling. 

Ray was a particularly enterprising youth and became a trusted employee of the leading family in Weaverville who owned both the local grocery store and the only furniture store in town. He not only bagged groceries and stocked shelves, he also cut steaks and ground sausage, as well as delivered grocery orders around town and to families living up the isolated coves nearby. He even helped deliver furniture and appliances on occasion, and frequently babysat for his employer. Later on, during his summers in college, he worked for Armour & Co., unloading train cars delivering bulk meat and dairy products to Asheville, then delivering them to customers throughout the region. One of his major clients was Biltmore Dairy Farm which depended on reliable deliveries of Armour butter fat to make their famous ice creams.

In 1954, the Buncombe County Board of Education completed the consolidation of numerous small high schools in the northern end of the county into North Buncombe High School—the first of many consolidations that would soon follow across the county and the region. Ray was elected president of the first class to graduate from NBHS and also was one of the only two members of his graduating class to earn a doctoral degree.

That fall, he enrolled at Western Carolina College in Cullowhee, the school of choice for many of his fellow students, as well as the alma mater of two favorite uncles. It was there that he met his bride-to-be, Ruby Ann McKnight from Gastonia. They were to be married in 1960.

The administration and faculty at WCC soon recognized the remarkable talents that Ray brought to campus and learned to depend on him for a great variety of services, ranging from counselling undergraduates and acting as resident advisor in dormitories, to helping administer large-scale exams, leading various campus organizations, performing in both collegiate and religious choirs, and much more. He graduated, in 1959, and after several experimental ventures, took a position at Gaston Technical College and, later, Gaston College. It was during these years that he made a career commitment to the field of education, first by earning a Master’s degree at Appalachian State University, then, in 1970, enrolling in the doctoral program at the University of Florida.

The newly-minted doctor returned to his former position at Gaston College where he remained until moving over to the Gaston County Schools, in 1977, as principal of the night school program. It was there that his students gave him the nickname “Doc,” a title he proudly boasted throughout his life. He held several key posts within the school system in subsequent years, but the one closest to his heart was Director of Vocational Education, in which he was instrumental in creating the Highland School of Technology. Upon his retirement in 2000, “Medford Commons” was dedicated there in his honor.

In 1987, Ray, along with six other like-minded individuals, founded the Gaston Agricultural, Mechanical, and Textile Restoration Association—GAMTRA. Over the following years, the group worked closely with Gaston County Parks and Recreation to create and develop “Cotton Ginning Days” into the popular exhibit and demonstration event that it soon became. (Despite being in the midst of treatment for pneumonia, Ray was blessed to be able to attend this year’s festival, October 11-12.)

In addition to his parents, Ray was preceded in death by his grandson Keaton Campion, his youngest daughter Jill Ellen Campion, and his wife of 62 years, Ruby Ann (McKnight), sister-in-law Junie A McGraw, brothers-in-law Ed W McKnight and Elton Kinkaid. He is survived by his eldest daughter Elizabeth Medford Carter (Greg), grandchildren W Nicholas Carter (Amanda), Benjamin McKnight Carter, Christopher Max-Wynn Campion (Renae) and Caroline Leslie-Ann Campion; sister Ruth Virginia Kinkaid of Fountain Valley, California; brother William E. Medford (Sue) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, nephews Alan Kinkaid, Ryan Kinkaid (Julie), Chuck McKnight (Sandy), Doug McKnight (Leslie) and Scott Adams, his church family, and the members of GAMTRA.

Services will be held on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 2 PM at New Hope Presbyterian Church, Gastonia, NC followed by the receiving of friends in the church fellowship hall.

In lieu of flowers, friends and family are invited to donate in his name to New Hope Presbyterian Church, 4357 S. New Hope Road, Gastonia, NC 28054, and/or GAMTRA, 2814 Philadelphia Church Rd, Dallas, NC 28034.