Ray LeBlanc

Life after Bishop Kelly

Graduated from University of Oklahoma in 1966

Attended law school at OU for one year 1966-67

Family- I have a wonderful family. Judy (see photo) and I have been married for 44 years. We have three sons and seven grandchildren. Lance, 41, is a salesman who lives in Tulsa with his wife Brittany, a preschool teacher at Marquette. They have three beautiful children, Grace, Brody and Elizabeth, who plan to attend Bishop Kelley after graduation from Marquette. Justin, 36, is a software engineer/product developer at GM who lives in Grosse Pointe, MI, with his wife Sherry. They have four boys, Jacob, Charlie, Gus and Sam. Travis, 35, is a struggling stand-up comedian with a day job on Madison Avenue in New York City. He is single and has no children.

Military Service- Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 and worked in an Army hospital in Tokyo where casualties were sent from Viet Nam. I was lucky that I had a desk job. It was a great experience and loved the Japanese people that worked on our base. My wife Judy was able to join me there for the last four months of my tour of duty.

Business Career- After my military service, Judy and I moved to Oklahoma City where I started what would become a 35 year career with Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages. I began my employment as an advertising sales representative and retired as a regional vice president in 2004. We were living in St. Louis at the time and that is still our home today. During my career I was transferred six times and have lived in Oklahoma City twice, Kansas City twice, New Haven, CT and St. Louis three times. I saw first-hand the dismantling of the great Bell System; the company had a couple of name changes over the years such as SBC Corporation and finally AT&T again.

After “retirement,” I became an independent business broker with Murphy Business & Financial.

Bishop Kelley Memories: Although I was only there for two years, BKHS is likely the most profound single experience in my life. My “education” there defined everything that happened in my life thereafter—college, career, military, marriage, fatherhood, the best and worst of times. I played sports and learned about character development and setting goals. In the classroom I learned critical thinking; I learned to appreciate good literature and history. What’s more, I met some of the best and brightest people I could ever imagine. Many were very special to me; most are lifelong friends. I am very proud of the Class of ’62. As a whole the class has been very successful, and more importantly, they have remained good people.

I left BKHS with great respect for the Christian Brothers. They made learning fun, helped us mature, and inspired us to be good men. I remember all of their names, but I had no favorites. I admired them all.