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THE MAN OF THE MONTH
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kind and courteous Ray is," says Al. "Other seniors would have thought such attentions to mere freshmen beneath their dignity." In the process, Ray pledged his brothers and Al to Phi Gamma Delta.
GRADUATED FROM MISSOURI and ready to begin the practice of law, Ray settled in Kan' sas City, although advisors told him there were already 1500 lawyers here and most of them weren't making a living. Nevertheless, he took a desk without pay in the firm of Austin and Davis — and there he worked during the years 1915-16-17 as Europe flamed with' the battles of World War I.
His father brought him his first case, from Platte City. The next week, a friend of his father's came in with a case. Gradually, many of the Platte County people he had known in his father's office or in the Weston bank came to him with their legal problems. He tried his first jury case in Platte City, with Guy Park, later a Missouri governor, as the opposing attorney.
By this time, the United States had entered World War I. Ray enlisted in the Army; and served at Camp Lee, Virginia, returning to Kansas City in March, 1919, as a First Lieutenant. He became a charter member of William T. Fitzsimmons Post No. 8 of the American Legion — a thriving post with 1670 members — and in 1921 he became its commander. Kansas City's Liberty Memorial was built at that time. For its formal dedication, Ray was a member of the American
Legion committee which welcomed to Kansas City and entertained General "Black Jack" Pershing, commander of U. S. A. forces in World War I; Admiral Lord David Beatty of England; Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France; Lt. General Baron Jacques of Belgium; and General Armando Diaz of Italy. Opposite Kansas City's Union Station, likenesses of these World War I leaders are preserved today in bronze at the Station Plaza entrance to the Liberty Memorial.
TF YOU REMEMBER World War i I, you'll recall that during those years the federal government first devised a new form of taxation known as the "income tax." Ray's brother Charles at that time was a revenue agent. His experiences convinced him that there was an opportunity for lawyers who would become experts in the field of income tax law. Among other things, the law allowed deductions for "depletion" — and its terms were then little known and less understood by some of the biggest oil companies in Texas! Charles persuaded Ray to become one of the first tax attorneys to practice in Kansas City, and with his brother Elmer, Ray began a tax practice. They officed at that time with another Phi