Word arrived that Walter Ray Lockwood (member 1256) passed away early this morning. He was 79 years of age. Ray was a long time member of the Central States Numismatic Society, served many offices and for many years as a Governor, Education Chair and assisted his wife Fran with the convention exhibits. He was a collector of many numismatic subjects, including polymer banknotes.

At the Chicago Coin Club's November 21, 2015 meeting held in conjunction with the PCDA National Currency and Coin Convention Ray gave a well received presentation on this subject. The next day Ray chaired the CSNS Numismatic Educational Symposium titled "Tales of Gold, Greed, Gangsters and Wartime on the Prairie." He was a constant presence at CSNS conventions for many years and will be dearly missed.

"As Convention Chairman I worked closely with Ray Lockwood each year to plan and implement our Educational Forum at the convention. Ray was always a delight to work with, doing what he said he would do when he said he would do it, having constructive and thoughtful suggestions as to how things could be improved.and just generally always keeping in sight the goal of doing things in a way that would have a positive ultimate impact on the convention and larger organization. I'll miss his sound judgment, clever wit and, very simply, his general good nature. The organization was enriched by his contributions and will continue to be long into the future."

Ray was a great gentleman and loved to share his numismatic interest. Fran and Ray were the first re-introduction I had had to exhibiting and we became good friends as well. That’s what our hobby is about, especially those of us in the Numismatic exhibit fraternity. He will be missed but remembered.