Longtime Waynewood Democrat, Ray Colley, Passes at 82

Ray Colley, a longtime Waynewood resident, passed away on May 3rd from complications from Alzheimer’s Disease. He was 82.

Those that knew him remember his dedication to the Democrat Party and enthusiasm for Virginia politics.

“He was quite a guy,” Ginny Lehner Peters recalled of her friend of 45 years. “He was one of the straightest arrows you’d ever want to meet.

He worked as Deputy Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1969 to 1995. He also worked as an assistant to 9th District Congressman W. Pat Jennings from 1955 to 1966, and as assistant to two Postmasters General in the 1960s.

Under Jennings, Colley took pride in successful efforts to further legislation and programs that assisted his native Appalachian region of Virginia, according to his family.

Colley also served as vice-chair of the Virginia Democratic Party from 1980 to 2000. The party will recognize Colley with a resolution at its next meeting.

But Peters remembers the commitment Colley showed to the Democratic Party decades earlier. As she stood out outside of Waynewood Elementary School in the early hours of an Election Day in the late 1960s, Colley came past, and offered a friendly hello. “How long have you been here?” he asked.

“Since 5 a.m.,” Peters replied. “Somebody has to come put up the signs before the Republicans take all the good spots” before polls opened at 6 a.m.  Colley graciously offered to take the early shift for the next election, and “I never had to do it again,” she said.

In 2001, he was recognized by the State Central Committee as the “Father of the Virginia Democratic Party Plan,” having been responsible for rewriting the plan to achieve more open and inclusive participation.

Frank Leone, an elected members of the state Democratic National Commitee, took over for Colley in 2001 as vice-chair. They met at Leone’s first state convention in 1980.

“I had to fill some very big shoes,” he wrote in a blog posting at DemRulz.com. “He was smart, well prepared, reasonable, and totally trustworthy.  He worked extremely hard to make sure that we had fair, clear, and open rules and you can’t ask for anything more.”

He also “had many accomplishments beyond the Party, and had family and friends who loved him very much. We think about him often,” wrote Leone.

W. Raymond Colley was born April 23, 1929 in Dickenson County, Va., the son of Granville J. and Bessie Owens Colley.

He was the first member of his family to attend college, graduating in 1951 from Berea College, where he edited the college newspaper and yearbook. He worked through school as a bellhop and desk clerk at the school’s Boone Tavern Inn.

Colley was a government and politics reporter for the Roanoke Times before moving to Northern Virginia in 1955 to work under Jennings. He also served two years in the Army as an enlisted man during the Korean War. He later served in the Army Reserves, rising to the rank of captain.

Later in life, Colley also served as president of the Waynewood Community Civic Association, Waynewood Elementary School PTA, and Fort Hunt High School PTA.

Colley is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, the former Alice Mildred Hook; sons Mark D. Colley and David R.; daughter-in-law Deborah Harsch and granddaughter Arden Colley.

He was interred May 25 at the Quantico National Cemetery in Triangle, Va. The family asks that donations in his memory may be made to Berea College, CPO 2216, Berea, KY 40404, or to the Democratic Party of Virginia, 1710 East Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23223.