Raymond “Ray” Springston, 63, died Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, in Fort Worth, Texas.
He was born Nov. 17, 1946, in Iola, the son of the late Charles Springston and Doris Ballard Springston Vogel.
He was a 1964 graduate of Iola High School. He attended Wichita State University and graduated with bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1969. He was a member of the R.O.T.C program there and was honorably discharged in 1969.
He served in the U.S. Air Force at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, as a missile launch officer and member of the Strategic Air Command. He was honorably discharged in 1973 with the rank of captain.
He then moved to Fort Worth where he entered Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary and graduated with a master’s degree of divinity in 1976. Following his graduation, he served several Fort Worth area churches in music ministry or as an associate pastor and trained as a chaplain in several hospitals in the Fort Worth area.
He enrolled at the University of Texas at Arlington as a student in computer science engineering specializing in artificial intelligence graduating with a master’s degree in 1991. That same year he began his doctoral study in the same field at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he was employed as a student adviser and lecturer. He remained on staff until his death.
In August 1970, he was married to Renee Weills in Wichita.
She survives; as do two brothers, Jim Springston and his wife, Phyllis, and Wade Vogel and his wife, Laura; and four nieces and two nephews.
Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Laurel Land Funeral Home, 7100 Crowley Rd., Fort Worth.
The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the funeral chapel.
Online condolences for the family may be left at star-telegram.com/obituaries.
‘Ray’ Springston
