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Raymond Fogelson Obituary
Raymond loved living part time in the mountains of Blairsville, Georgia. He was a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago where his field of research and study included Native Americans in Cherokee, NC and in Oklahoma. He is preceded in death in 1998 by his beloved sister, Florence Blumberg, of Blairsville, Georgia.
Survivors include his loving wife & best-friend, Karen Luckritz of Chicago, nephew Fred Blumberg of Lakewood New Jersey, niece Judy Blumberg of Lakeville Ohio, cousins Bette Feinstein of New Jersey and Andrew Schwarz of Lake Forest, California, two step-children, Lisa Luckritz of Schaumburg, Illinois, Brian Luckritz of Merrillville, Indiana, and two step grandchildren, Charlotte Peterson & Aaron Peterson.
A memorial service will be held at a later date in Chicago. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (North Carolina Community Foundation, 3737 Glenwood Ave., Suite 460, Raleigh, NC 27612 1-800-532-1349) in Raymond's memory.
To plant trees in memory, please visit theĀ Sympathy Store.
Memories and Condolences
for Raymond Fogelson
Jay Williams
September 1, 2020
Ray was the most influential person in my life. He accomplished so much and touched so many. I can only wish Karen and the family strength as they seek to cope with his departure. My apologies I've delayed so long in commenting. Ray deserves the best, in this world and the next!
Kevin Avruch
May 18, 2020
I, too, am coming to this page very late, May of 2020. Won't make a difference for Ray; he got some of my undergraduate papers late, too. I was his (undergrad) student at Chicago 1968-72, but in fact I remained his student all his (and my) life. An incomparable mentor, a friend, a model for my devotion to my students. Shoot low, Ray. They're riding Shetlands.
Joseph Jastrzembski
April 15, 2020
I am late to hearing of Ray's death. There passed a great and good man. A consummate scholar and guide.
Bill Wedenoja
March 31, 2020
I am so very sorry to learn that Ray has passed. It is hard to accept that I won't be seeing him again, and I am sure others feel the same. He has been a beloved presence in my life since 1976, when he was a Visiting Professor at UCSD, and I had the privilege of being his TA, along with George Scott, in courses on North American Indians and Primitive Religion. I was amazed at the thought and passion he put into his lectures. Even though he had given them many times, he not only reworked but also rehearsed them, the night before, just like an actor getting ready for the stage. I still have many of his lectures on religion, and built on them over the years for my own class. He was truly a dedicated teacher, and a mentor to many. In fact, he encouraged me to apply for the job I held for 38 years, and which I was about to pass on. Fortunately, I was able to see Ray regularly at Central States meetings, where I got to know his lovely partner Karen. Ray was quite the wit. On one panel, he quipped that "I've given the University of Chicago the best years of my life, and now I'm going to give them the worst." You never knew what was going to come out of his mouth, but it was always clever and insightful. Ray knew the field of anthropology as a community, like no one else, and had funny stories about its personalities. I only wish he would have written an informal history of it. So long my friend. It's been great knowing you, and I won't forget you.
CYNTHIA BROCKETT
February 23, 2020
Ray and my husband Dick Mack were best friends going back to their childhood. They were both shipped off to Solebury School by their families in New Jersey and were roommates there; if they were the Odd People, Ray was Oscar and Dick Felix. We had some great reunions at Solebury.
It is amusing to think of the divergent paths they both took: Ray in academia and Dick into wine and spirits.
What they had in common were kindness and curiosity, a gift for nonjudgmental approaches to people and a total absence of meanness or jealousy. Ray had the good fortune to meet Karen Luckritz who did a great job of wrangling Ray in the rodeo of life. Dick had the blessing of two children, Randi and Peter, who inherited his laugh and good nature.
I am a nonbeliever, but if there is a heaven, I hope they are sharing a dorm together. But for heaven's sake, please get them a housekeeper!
Sarah Sticha
February 12, 2020
Ray was a professor, mentor, friend, and sage advice-giver when I was an undergrad at the University of Chicago, as well as for many years afterward as I wound my way around the American West looking for roots and meaning. We exchanged postcards for years and I still have fond memories of going to the post office in Austin, Nevada on the Loneliest Highway and finding a postcard waiting for me from Ray of a Siberian Husky wearing Groucho Marx glasses. It now hangs in a frame in my home. My way of being in this world, and the energy I bring to the young people I work with every day, is still profoundly influenced by Ray taking me under his wing when I was floundering all those years ago and took a chance on a class about shamans.
Randi Mack
January 27, 2020
I'm so sorry to hear about Ray. He was my father's best friend- Dick Mack. It is truly a big loss. Ray was so interesting with incredible stories and fun to be around. He was family. It is the end of a generation. Karen, I am so sorry for your loss.
Sally Francis
January 26, 2020
It was a delight to have known Ray. He was wonderful, as you know. He was so very fortunate to have had you with him. I'm so sorry at his passing.
Sebastian Braun
January 24, 2020
Thank you, Ray! A great life and still giving so much.
January 24, 2020
Thinking of the family during this difficult time and wishing them peace and comfort
Kathy Anderson
January 23, 2020
Ray was a great person; he will be sorely missed. My heartfelt sympathy to Karen and his family.
Jamie Saris
January 23, 2020
Ray Folgelson was the Chair of my PhD Committee, my mentor and my friend. He was a profound and very wide-ranging scholar. There were few things he had read that he could not find quickly in the great vault of his mind, and he had read an awful lot. The hours I spent in a dilapidated blue chair fighting with a large, annoyingly resilient ficus plant, while he unwound the thread of his thought on a great variety of subjects, I still count as amongst my most important educational experiences.
Ray's dedication to his students was legendary, and sentences like, He supported me in my subsequent career, give only the vaguest sense of how firmly he assisted my professional growth. There were few better sources of advice or consolation.
Like anyone who knew him, I could share myriad stories about this warm, gentle, ferociously smart man. On one of his visits as a guest speaker to Ireland (where I eventually settled), I had, perhaps with undo optimism, organised a barbeque (and the day, when it came, promised rain). Some of the early arrivals watched, with a some bemusement, Ray offering tobacco to whatever entity(ies?) in charge of Irish precipitation (he was after all a Creek Green Corn initiate) to have them delay their plans and let me get my fire lit. The BBQ went off under cloudy but dry weather. Grad students at that party still talk about this event.
As all of Ray's friends were, I was delighted and charmed when I first met Karen. I had heard Ray talk about her in a tone he used only when he was being serious about something, and it was clear when I first saw the two of them together how much he loved and cared for her. Her time with Ray was the happiest I ever saw him.
Goodbye, Ray.
January 23, 2020
Our love goes out to the family
Lisa Luckritz
January 22, 2020
Ray Fogelson was the sweetest, most wonderful man. A great husband and friend to my mother and a great mind. One of the most generous people I've ever known; always sharing life stories, jokes, books, music, and good counsel. My mom was by his side and said he was at peace. I've had a good life, and I'm going to have a good death.
January 22, 2020
Jeff Anderson
January 22, 2020
I was a stray farm dog scholar who crawled in the back door of the University of Chicago anthropology department. Ray fed me and gave me a warm place to lie down by the stove in his kitchen office, and in time taught me a few good tricks and gave me enough courage to go into the big tent and join the circus. From that point on he was not only a superb teacher, advisor, sage, and counselor to me, but a great friend, creative life force, and soul mender. I am thankful beyond measure also for the many food discoveries he shared in Chicago and elsewhere, the many books he loaned or gave me, the all-night parties reading poetry aloud as the sun rose, the good and bad jokes he told, the neckties, telling it to me straight when I misbehaved, and, most of all, for tracking me down and bringing me back every time I ran away from the circus. Words cannot express the depth of the loss I feel. My heart goes out to all his relations with love and peace.
Ray
Denise Dering
January 22, 2020
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Denise Dering
January 22, 2020
Thank you Ray for all the great times & happiness you gave our family. We live & will miss you always.
Janice Abbott Poller
January 22, 2020
Karen, prayers for you and your family at this sad time.
January 22, 2020
My heart goes out to you and your family at this difficult time.
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January 21, 2020
Ray, thank you for being an amazing addition to our family. You brought us all so much love, joy & laughs. Most of all, Thank you for making my sister Karen so happy! Love you, Brotherā¤
Celine Swicegood
January 21, 2020
Almost 20 years ago, I had the best intellectual Mentor you can possibly wish for : Ray D Fogelson, professor at the Anthropology Department of the University of Chicago. I was still timid in this new field, having moved from France to unknown territory, navigating the jargon of American graduate school system.
Cant help the tears learning that he is now a spirit somewhere.
I'll never forget the Ethnohistory conferences, his office which was a sweet mess, navigating thru pile high books and papers. His place in Old Town neighborhood mixing the jungle greeneries and ceiling high personal library, with the funny 70's couch all the students were wondering about LOL
I'm mad at myself for postponing trying to see him again. But I'm sure he sees all the students he has helped over time...
Merci Merci Merci Ray for being so generous of your time. I will never forget you!
William O Autry
January 21, 2020
A wonderful mentor, scholar, and friend, Ray will be greatly missed. !
Frederic Gleach
January 21, 2020
As Loren Eiseley wrote about his mentor Frank Speck in the department at Penn where Ray studied "Everyone in his youthand who is to say when youth is ended?meets for the last time a magician, the man who made him what he is finally to be." Ray was in turn that magician for countless students, certainly for me. I can't even imagine the person I'd be without Ray. He will be greatly missed, by many, for a long time to come.
Brenda Child
January 21, 2020
It was great knowing Ray these many years. He was a terrific person and I enjoyed seeing how happy he was after his marriage to Karen. Condolences, Karen.
Mountain View Funeral Home
January 21, 2020
Offering our deepest condolences during this difficult time.
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