Oak Island Seniors Craft Store

A Word About the November Elections for Board Officers andThis year, we will be voting for a new Presi

Meet The Members:  Raymond & Esther Kuhn

On a hot July afternoon, I interviewed Ray and Esther Kuhn, who have been members of the Senior Center since shortly after they moved to Oak Island in 1999.  As it happens, Esther was the author of the “Meet TheMembers” page for three years.  “I still miss doing the interviews”, she says, but health problems forced her to forego that chore.                                                                               As many of you remember, her pieces were always well written and helped us become familiar with some of our fellow members. Esther and Ray Kuhn are “children of the depression”.  Esther was born in Geneva, NY on the northern end of Lake Seneca; not far south of Lake Ontario.  Her family made many moves, since her father followed the jobs.  She attended high school at Duke Center, Pennsylvania, just a few miles south of the New York state border.  After high school, Esther attended business school, and according to her instructors, was a “promising student”.   However, as she says, “I didn’t like business school, or that kind of work.”  She married in 1946 and became a mother and housewife.

Ray was born in Camden, NJ; the home of Campbell’s Soup.  His family also did a bit of moving and he lived in Philadelphia and finally, in Doylestown, PA; where he attended school.  Following high school, Ray attended Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA.  He served 2 years in the U.S. Army Infantry during the Korean War.  His duty took him to Anchorage, Alaska, back in the days before it was a state.  He has worked at many professions during his working years; salesman, dry cleaning, milkman, and construction.

I asked how they met and Esther told me:  “My husband had passed away some time before and I was doing some work in a building that Ray managed – it was part of HUD (Housing and Urban Development).  Ray brought me some vegetables and some berries from his garden.  I thought it was very thoughtful of him and that’s how it started.”  After Ray retired, the two were married, in 1993.  Esther’s daughter and her husband were living in Gastonia, NC, so Ray and Esther moved to our state.  They lived in Shelby, NC for two years, then moved to Oak Island in 1999, right on the heels of Hurricane Floyd.

Esther credits Vangie Peterson with getting her interested in the Senior Center.  Vangie was the Craft Shop Manager at the time and Esther and Ray wanted to get to know people in our area.  They have been members since 2000 and you will see them at nearly every one of our monthly dinner meetings.

Ray and Esther belonged to the Fisherman’s Club for some time and Ray owned his own boat.  I asked about grandchildren and Esther told me that she has six grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren.  Esther’s granddaughter has been in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the last three years and is a missionary there.  She gave up her career in the computer field to “do some good in the world”.  Ray and Esther are in touch with her via email.

I first met Ray when J. C. Moss started regular table tennis games at our Recreation Center.  He played a “mean game” then, but health problems have curtailed his playing since.  The Kuhns are good people and steady supporters of the Ruth T. Bigham Senior Center.  Say “hello” to them at the next monthly dinner  meeting.