Raymond Arnold Strand was born December 22, 1951 in Morris Minnesota to Arnold and Hazel (Kvale) Strand of Swan Lake Township.
He attended public schools in Morris and graduated from the
University
of
Minnesota
, Morris in 1974 with a major in Biology and one class short of obtaining an English major.
Ray was a scientist and an poet, a lab technician and builder of one-of-a-kind art furniture, a computer geek and a tinkerer.
Soon after college he fulfilled a dream of his by working with
The Big Outdoors People
building geodesic domes.
Ray loved domes, designed them, helped build them and had big plans to build one at the
Strand
farm site.
Ray moved on to a junior scientist position at the
University
of
Minnesota
where he worked in a cardiac research lab for two of his mentors in life, Dr. Lillehi and Dr. Joyce.
After that he managed cytogenetics labs under the tutelage of Dr. Nancy Wang in
Minneapolis
,
New Orleans
, and
Rochester
NY
.
Ray left his scientific self behind to study under Wendell Castle at his
School for Fine Woodworking and Furniture Design
in upstate NY. After returning to
Minnesota
he established his business,
Prairie Sky Design,
where he designed and built a variety of furniture, had several gallery showings and sold commissioned pieces of art furniture.
Ray was raised Lutheran but explored Buddhism while in college.
He became a member of the Buddhist lay organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in 1974. He opened his home for SGI discussion meetings, encouraging others and working toward world peace throughout his life.
He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Clare (Dingley)
Strand
; two sons Michael Peder and William Thomas; his sisters Marilyn Strand (Randy Best) and Gloria Strand Perchinski (Bill Brown).
Ray was preceded in death by his parents and two unborn children, Annie Clare and Christopher Raymond.
