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<em>Jim Ray</em>, like a verse of magnificent poetry, lingers in the mind and invites an explanation of his endurance. Milton wrote that poetry is more "simple, sensuous, and passionate” than rhetoric, and Jim’s life made just such an impression. Jim fashioned a brilliant record that proves his mastery of conduct in this prosaic world and places him rightly among an elite group of successful men. It is a tribute of convenience to associate him with that group when recollecting our dead. But the tenacity with which he sticks in the mind attests to a unique quality not involved in the rhetoric of normal values. Jim Ray transcended usual measures by raising the argument of his life to poetry—simple, sensuous, and passionate.</p>
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Jim informed his life with an ordered and elegant simplicity. Earthly intricacies puzzled him only because other persons were so baffled by them. In evaluating Jim's academic perception the Masters of Oxford were as one with the “goats” in the “sinks" of West Barracks; except that the goats had not the privilege of demonstrating so vividly their judgment that the Masters confirmed by awarding Jim a rare, unvivacd First for his skill. In affairs military Jim maintained his clear vision. From the Academy to Fort Lewis to Vietnam he chose the simple word, the simple solution, the simple truth. The utter accuracy of his analysis of the district advisor’s role in Vietnam is late testimony of Jim’s ability to isolate and attack essential problems. He so pared excess from his life, so tested his mental powers, that he at times was plainly Spartan. But, while he fostered a severe physical and mental self-discipline, he never transformed simplicity to dullness. A fine excess delighted the world that Jim Ray touched.</p>
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Jim was no cold intellectual who, murdering to dissect, barred sensory appreciation. On the contrary, Jim was extraordinarily and gratefully aware of the pleasure of sense. Whether singing opera or playing Mozart; delivering a perfect Paragraph Three or booming out a drill command; marveling at a Reubens or introducing his lovely wife; savoring a breakfast quail or sipping an old Madeira; riding with graceful precision or imparting a firm handshake; condemning shoddy work or praising excellence; linking the hands of father, mother, brother, sister in stately prayer or flourishing his lively wit—in all of these pursuits Jim was excited by his very humanity. He was fluent in several languages but most in the universal one of emotion. He lived in that language because he sensed the limitations of the measured confines of the intellect. Sensitive men found a kindred spirit in Jim Ray. He was the man who could still love and hate, laugh and cry, shout and stay silent, curse and pray, taste and abstain, befriend and ignore.</p>
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Jim marked whatever he thought and did with a splendid passion. Dramatic intensity imbued his every action. He moved with the dedication, responsibility, and style of an actor on opening night. Driven to communicate, Jim roused the sleepiest audience to attention. While his vigor and impatience were not pleasing to the sluggard mind, they never failed to exhilarate men who were not ready to quit thinking and feeling. Jim affected life with his passionate attitude at all turns. Most of us who saw Jim only at West Point never discovered what a sensation he created at Oxford, never knew his remarkable friends and admirers there. Many of us may never have seen the devoted relationship of love and respect between Jim and his parents, brother, sister, and wife, Many may never have felt the wonder of Jim’s fervent dedication to friendship that made clear the highest value of that word. Many of us never saw the passion with which Jim performed his Army duties. None of us saw his final passion.</p>
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But we all remember the poetry of his life. Jim Ray is unforgettable. We who survive, hear again and again the recitation of his achievement, his promise, his challenge. The verse breaks off too soon and dares us to make, somehow, the fragment whole.</p>