Dr. Sherwin Raymond

Dr. Sherwin Raymond of Ridgefield staunchly defended both the Second Amendment and a woman's right to an abortion.

He had the newspaper headlines to show for his beliefs.

In 2008, the long-retired general practitioner and surgeon pleaded guilty to creating a community hazard in connection with the 2005 discovery of a huge stockpile of weapons  nearly 500 guns, 800 pounds of gunpowder and 75,000 rounds of ammunition  in his borough home. Dr. Raymond, who had served prison time in a 1970s weapons case, was sentenced to probation and ordered to sell the weapons.

Four decades earlier, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit abortion. The charge stemmed from his involvement in an illegal abortion ring operating in Hudson and Union counties. He served just under three years at Rahway State Prison.

Dr. Raymond, who died Sunday at 88, "would want to remembered as someone who had strong values and beliefs and fought for those beliefs, even though there were considerable consequences," his son and only survivor, Gary Raymond of Washington, D.C., said Thursday.

"He was a great believer in individual freedoms," Gary Raymond added.

"I've been sort of a rebel all my life. I've always had a tremendous irreverence for the gray-haired idiots  perhaps I should say leaders," Dr. Raymond, who was a Ridgefield Police Department doctor in the 1960s, told The Record after serving time for his abortion crime. Less than two years after his release, the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion.

Gary Raymond said his father studied law and worked at challenging New Jersey's abortion prohibition while in prison. "I saw him frequently in prison and |my mom went every weekend," the son said. "I'm sure [prison] was hard on him."

After the Roe v. Wade ruling, Dr. Raymond shifted his focus to the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The Massachusetts native was a lifelong gun enthusiast.

"He always kept guns," his son said. "I learned to shoot when I was young, and I learned about gun safety from my father. I never saw guns lying around the house. My father was so careful. He had a locked gun room. So it was odd for me to have read the report from the police" about the 2005 weapons cache discovery.

Gary Raymond said he did not know about the stockpile.

Dr. Raymond, a Ridgefield resident since 1952, sought a Board of Education seat in 1986 but withdrew from the race before the election.

He had been on dialysis for about eight years and died of pneumonia, his son said.

Dr. Raymond's wife, Elizabeth, died in 2009.

Arrangements are by Blackley Funeral Home, Ridgefield.not putting times of service, visitation in because of raymond's controversial nature

E-mail: levin@northjersey.comStory 'BHOBRAYMOND0218' fetched from queue '\Production\CopyDesk\TR_Done' on 2/17/2011 10:04:37 PM