CONTINUING THE LEGACY ​OF EXTRAORDINARY MEN

 RAY, CREAD L. was born in Waskom, Harrison County, Texas, on March 10, 1931, and graduated from Waskom High School, as Salutatorian, in 1948. He attended Texas A & M University and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree where he served on the Corp Staff and was named an Outstanding Cadet.

After A & M, Ray entered the United States Air Force. He graduated from the Air Force's School of Airborne Electronics and later fought in the Korean War. After the War, he enlisted in the Air Force Reserve, where he retired as a Lt. Colonel in 1987.

After the Air Force, Ray entered law school at the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with a Juris Doctorate. After being admitted to the state bar in 1957, Ray began his legal career. In 1959, Ray began his political career when he was elected County Judge of Harrison County.  In 1966, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives where he served two terms.  

While in Austin, Ray served as Vice Chairman of the Aeronautics Committee and was a member of the Judiciary, Criminal Jurisprudence, Transportation, Oil, Gas and Mining, and the Legislative and Congressional District Committees.

Deciding not to seek a third term in the Legislature, Ray returned to Northeast Texas and ran for a seat on the Sixth Court of Appeals in Texarkana. He was elected on November 3, 1970, and was sworn in January 1, 1971. He was reelected in 1976.

While on the bench, Ray continued his education by attending and graduating from numerous seminars and schools. He held certificates from the American Bar Association's Appellate Judges Seminars, which he attended from 1971 to 2000, New York University's Institute of Judicial Administration (1971), and the University of Nevada's National College of the State Judiciary (1972). Ray, who during this time was also serving the Air Force Reserve, graduated from the College of the Armed Forces, now called the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. In 1980, Ray was elected to the Supreme Court of Texas. He was sworn in on November 25, 1980, and served until December 31, 1990. While on the Supreme Court, Ray co-authored two articles, one for the St. Mary's Law Journal entitled, Drafting Enforceable Non-Competition Agreements in Texas, and another for the Texas Law Review, called The Mandamus Explosion.

After serving more than 24 years as a state official, Ray returned to private law practice in Austin and specialized in Appellate, Oil and Gas, and Personal Injury Law.

Not only did Judge Ray serve the people of Texas as a state official, but he also served the state in numerous other venues. He held several positions with the Marshall and Texas Jaycees, was president of the Harrison County and Northeast Texas Bar Associations, and was a member of the board of trustees for Wiley College, who presented him with an Honorary Doctorate, a L. H. D. in 1980.

Judge Ray was both an Eagle Scout and a Distinguished Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and also took an active role in that institution. He served on the Executive Board and as Vice President for Legal Affairs. He also received the Silver Antelope and Silver Beaver awards, the District Award of Merit, the Paisano International Award, and was a James E. West Fellow.
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Judge Ray is survived by his wife, the former Janet Watson, and four children, Robert (Martha), Glenn, Marcie (Ben), Anne (George) and five grandchildren, Kathryn Sue Kelley, Arden Schmidt, Travis Ray, Garrick Schmidt and Wesley Ray.  He was predeceased by his daughter, Sue Ann Culver, and stepson David Keller.  

“Dr. Charles Berry was a founding member of the NASA family who will be greatly missed,” said NASA Johnson Space Center Director Mark Geyer. “From playing a key role in selecting the original seven Mercury astronauts, to providing personal medical support from mission control for Apollo missions, to a distinguished career in Houston after departing NASA, Chuck was a unique person who made an indispensable contribution to human spaceflight. He also was a friend and colleague of us at JSC throughout his life.”

Berry was one of the first to embark on a career in the novel new field of aviation medicine after joining the Air Force. He moved to San Antonio, Texas, to begin a residency at the U.S. Air Force School of Aviation Medicine. After a year of training there, Berry was sent to Panama, where he served for three years as a flight surgeon, assisting Central and South American countries in setting up their own aviation medicine programs an  flying rescue missions.

“Dr. Charles Berry was a founding member of the NASA family who will be greatly missed,” said NASA Johnson Space Center Director Mark Geyer. “From playing a key role in selecting the original seven Mercury astronauts, to providing personal medical support from mission control for Apollo missions, to a distinguished career in Houston after departing NASA, Chuck was a unique person who made an indispensable contribution to human spaceflight. He also was a friend and colleague of us at JSC throughout his life.”
Berry was one of the first to embark on a career in the novel new field of aviation medicine after joining the Air Force. He moved to San Antonio, Texas, to begin a residency at the U.S. Air Force School of Aviation Medicine. After a year of training there, Berry was sent to Panama, where he served for three years as a flight surgeon, assisting Central and South American countries in setting up their own aviation medicine programs and  flying rescue missions.

Upon returning to the United States, Berry completed his residency, receiving a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. He returned to San Antonio in 1956, where he became chief of the Department of Flight Medicine at the U.S. Air Force School of Aviation Medicine, and began studying the effects of high-altitude flight on pilots soaring to the edges of the atmosphere.

Only two years later, NASA was created. In 1957, Berry was one of the physicians selected to fly to Washington to help select test pilots to “fly” a military rocket into outer space. Those pilots would later have the distinction of being called “astronauts” — and Berry had a hand in their selection. He and his fellow physicians invented ways to test these pilots to see which ones would best meet the demands of space (as it was then understood). These elite medical professionals, too, were responsible for devising methods to monitor the astronauts who were completing daring mission into the unknown.

Berry left the Air Force after 16 years to start a long NASA career, which ended in 1974. During his time at NASA, Berry was involved in selecting subsequent classes of astronauts following in the hallowed footsteps of the Original Seven. In all, he helped send 42 individuals into space in over 30 missions — including Apollo 11 — during which Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. During that historic mission, Berry monitored the crew.

Berry retired from NASA as the director of Life Sciences to become the first president of the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston. Some of his notable accomplishments throughout his nearly seven decades of service include serving as house physician at KPRC, Channel 2 News in Houston, where he did on-air health segments. He also worked as an aviation medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration and was an aerospace medicine consultant for many years. In 1979 and 1980, the pioneering physician was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.
“To me he was a father, a friend, a mentor and a colleague, as he was to many of you,” said his son Dr. Michael A. Berry in a statement. “Dr. ‘Chuck’ from Apollo 13 fame was known to many in this country, and around the world. He will be missed.”

His groundbreaking work inspired a giant leap of another kind -- one in medicine and astronaut health.

“Dr. Charles Berry was a singular leader in space medicine,” said Johnson Chief Medical Officer Dr. Terrance Taddeo. “His efforts during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs helped to achieve the first human Moon landing and gained him almost mythical status among his peers. Well respected by past and present NASA flight surgeons, he remained a sought-after figure at aerospace medicine conferences for the rest of his life. He will be greatly missed by those of us involved in space medicine and human health and performance.”