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HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22.,1979
Perry’s Richard Ray Makes His Mark In D.C.
(Editor’s note: The
following story on
Perry’s Richard Ray
appeared in the Sunday,
Nov. 18, edition of The
Macon Telegraph &
News. The story was
written by the paper’s
Washington corres
pondent Christopher
Bonner and is being
reprinted by permission
of the Telegraph &
News.)
For a man who used to
earn his living killing
roaches and ants, Dickie
Ray of Perry, Ga., has
come a long way. For one
thing, as Sam Nunn’s No.
1 aide, the name is
Richard, not Dickie.
“I intorduce myself up
here as Richard,” he said
in an interview. ‘‘But I
was raised as Dickie.”
Ray does not look like
the sort of man anyone
would call Dickie. He
wears dark business
suits, glasses and ap
pears totally at home as
the administrative
assistant to Nunn, a
Perry Democrat and
Georgia’s junior senator.
RAY HAS an office
next to Nunn’s, the only
other private office in the
senator’s suite in the
Dirksen Building.
He is a clean-desk kind
of administrator, ef
ficient and given to
detail, such as issuing an
office manual that tells
typists how many spaces
to indent for paragraphs
(five) and how many
copies to make (four
yellow, pink, green and
white).
Ray has a courtly
manner that some might
consider aloofness. He
rarely takes his jacket off
on the job.
Unlike some ad
ministrative assistants,
Ray has a low profile.
But, according to a senior
Nunn aide, “There’s no
mistake about it, after
the senator, Richard is
No. 1 around here.”
Brinkley’s Bill
Will Aid Retired
U.S. Representative
Jack Brinkley, who
represents Houston
County, has reintroduced
legislation to remove the
limitation upon the
amount of outside income
which an individual may
earn while receiving
Social Security benefits.
He is a long-time sup
porter of a change in the
law which would allow
continued productivity of
recipients.
Brinkley’s proposal -
H.R. 5558 -- would removt
the punitive aspect or
earnings. Under Title II
of the Social Security Act
as it now exists, the
outside annual earnings
limitation is $3,480 for
those under 65 years of
age and $4,500 for those 65
years of age or older.
For every $2.00 earned
250 Items To Be
Auctioned At Robins
Some 250 items,
ranging from golf bags to
pickup trucks, will be
sold at auction Tuesday,
Nov. 27, at Robins AFB.
The Defense Property
Disposal Office has an
nounced that the auction
will begin at 9:15 a.m. at
the DPDO Bldg. Bldg.
264. Registration opens at
8:15 a.m.
On sale will be 1966 and
1967 Chevrolet pickup
trucks, 1970 Dodge
pickup, 1969 AMC Am
bassador sedan, office
tables, desks and chairs,
electric calculators and
typewriters, copiers,
According to the AMA, brushing your hair 100 strokes
a day won't do it any good and may even harm it.
A measure of Ray’s
importance in Nunn’s
office is a red light on the
receptionist’s desk that
glows whenever Ray is on
the telephone. This
means he is not to be
disturbed, unless, of
course, the caller is the
senator.
The understand what
portly Richard Ray, 52,
does for Sam Nunn to
earn $43,848 yearly
requires a knowledge of
what goes on in a
senator’s office and what
kind of office Nunn
wants.
On his staff of about 40
persons, Nunn has kept
just two people from his
initial 1972 campaign
Ray and press secretary
Roland McElroy. That’s
far fewer political
loyalists than are found in
many Senate offices.
Ray said that he
screens and Nunn hires
employees based on
merit and that they are
assigned to the office’s
four departments:
legislation, press, con
stituent services and
correspondence manage
ment._
It is Ray’s job, he said,
to act as “traffic direc
tor” for all departments,
to see that things are
operating smoothly. He
also evalulates each
workers’ performance
yearly before pay raises
are given.
To make sure each
employee knows what he
or she is supposed to do,
Ray issued each a 14-
page policy manual. This
comprehensive document
discusses how employees
should dress “with the
dignity one would nor
mally associate with a
senator’s office” how
to write letters, when to
show up for work (8
a.m.), and what to do if
you’re the last person to
leave the office (lock
doors, turn off lights, turn
on phone recorder, un
plug coffee maker).
above the limitation
figure, SI.OO is deducted
from Social Security
benefits under present
law. According to
Brinkley that’s not fair
and encourages inac
tivity although many
individuals in this
category would prefer to
work.
“Present Social
Security law,” Brinkley
said, ‘‘penalizes in
dustrious people just
because they happen to
be within the retirement
age bracket. It penalizes
people who earn money
by the sweat of their brow
as compared to in
dividuals with unlimited
investment earnings who
suffer no penalty.”
H.R. 5558 is pending
before the House Ways
and Means Committee.
cash registers,
typewriter ribbons, a
barber’s chair, box
springs, refrigerators,
mirrors, chairs, work
tables, pumps, hydraulic
cylinders, clothing and
hardware, 55-gallon
drums, chemicals and
compounds.
These items may be
seen Nov. 19 through Nov.
26 from 8:15 a.m. to 3
p.m., excluding Saturday
and Sunday and
Thanksgiving. Interested
persons may go to Bldg.
333 for escort and catalog
service. Call 926-3178 for
recorded information on
this auction.
With Senator Sam Nunn From The Start
Indeed, Ray even
devised a job description
for himself. It consists of
14 items, from general
office supervision to
"maintain close liaison
with the senator’s sup
porters in Georgia.” He
has even worked out
percentages to indicate
how much time he ought
to devote to each mission.
What is interesting
about Richard Ray is not
his chillingly efficient,
system-oriented way of
doing things (a
methodical style also
typical of the way Nunn
handles problems), but
that he has managed to
subordinate his ego to
that of Nunn.
For Ray is no stranger
to the limelight. He rose
through the ranks to
become a national
director of the Jaycees,
and from 1964 to 1970 was
mayor of Nunn’s home
town, Perry.
Ray was Perry’s SSOO
--month mayor at a time
when being in govern
ment meant being in the
middle of the volatile
race issue.
Those times were so
tense, Ray recalled, that
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during one council
meeting he barely
avoided being punched
in the mouth by a council
member and ex
professional boxer
named Dot Roughton.
To keep the lid of racial
friction and establish a
dialogue between blacks
and whites, Ray formed a
“coordinating com
mittee” of leading black
and white citizens.
“I did not call it a
biracial commission
because that was a bad
word back then,” Ray
said.
One of the members of
that committee was a
young Perry lawyer. Sam
Nunn. Ray said he
wanted Nunn on the
committee because he
came from an old
respected Perry family.
Ray, himself, was a
farmer’s son from Fort
Valley, Ga., Perry’s rival
city 20 miles east, and
some longtime Perry
residents had not fully
accepted him although he
had lived in Perry since
1950.
Ray moved to Perry
after service as a seaman
in World War 11. He was
the oldest of seven
children and decided
there was not enough
money to raise a family
as a peach, peanut and
cotton farmer.
He turned, instead to
the extermination of
insects and founded the
Ray Pest Control Co., in
Perry in 1950. The
business prospered and
was bought by Getz
Exterminators in 1962.
Ray continued as a Getz
executive during his
service as mayor and
career in the Georgia
Municipal Association, he
was GMA president in
1962.
Ray had become an
adviser to Nunn, who
during the late 1960 s was
a Georgia state
representative in ad
dition to being an at
torney. Nunn had made
no secret of his ambition
to be congressman and he
had hoped his chance
would come with the
creation, during the 1972
reapportionment, of a
Middle Georgia district
that would include Perry
and Macon.
That did not happen.
Instead, Sen. Richard
Russell died and Gov.
Jimmy Carter appointed
Atlanta attorney David
Gambrell to take his
place.
Ray advised Nunn to
take on Gambrell
because, he said, "my
impression was that
Gambrell was not coming
through. I thought that
Nunn had a good shot at
it.”
Ray was one of six of
Nunn’s closest political
advisers during the
rugged 1972 campaign.
Ray said he thought to
himself: “Wouldn’t it be
great to work in
Washington for Nunn,”
but never shared this
thought with his wife, the
former Barbara Giles of
Byron.
After Nunn was elec
ted, he asked Ray to
come to Washington to
work on transition bet
ween senatorial offices.
When Nunn joined him in
Washington, he casually
told reporters that Ray
would be his new ad
ministrative assistant.
That was the first Ray
heard of the job. But, he
said, it sounded like a
good idea to him.
1 Egvr* B
Richard Ray
PAGE 3-B