RAYMOND B. ACKERMAN

ACKERMAN
RAYMOND B.
Rear Admiral Ray Ackerman, USNR (Ret.), passed away on October 17, 2012. He was born in Pittsburgh, PA on August 7, 1922 and grew up in the borough of Bellevue. He enlisted in the Navy as a V-5 Aviation Cadet on August 27, 1942 and was commissioned an ensign on August 16, 1943. After being qualified as a Navigator, Air-bomber, Anti-sub Warfare Technician and Fighter Pilot, he was discharged from active duty effective May 21, 1947 after a Carrier tour flying the F4U-4 Corsair off the USS Tarawa, CV-40, in the Pacific. He moved to Oklahoma City in June 1947 to work as an advertising salesman for the Daily Oklahoman and resumed flying Corsairs in the Navy Reserve at Naval Air Station, Dallas. In 1961, he assumed command of Jet Fighter Squadron VF704 and in 1965 took over command of the Naval Reserve Association, 1969-1971, and as Chapter and State President and National Director of the Navy League. In 1952, Ackerman joined a small advertising agency in Oklahoma City with billings of $250,000 and bought it two years later. When he retired from the Ackerman McQueen Agency in 1992, it was billing $92 million and is now over $200 million from offices in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dallas, Washington D.C. and Colorado Springs. He published a book "Tomorrow Belongs to Oklahoma" in 1964, and was elected to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1993, the Oklahoma Commerce and Industry Hall of Fame in 1998 and elected to the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2003, his biography, "Old Man River" by Bob Burke with Joan Gilmore was published by the Oklahoma Heritage Assn. He was married in 1948 and is survived by his wife of 64 years, Lucille Frances Ackerman of the home in Oklahoma City; a son, Ray, who is a Roman Catholic Priest; a son Mark and his wife; and four daughters, Patsy, Annie, Susie and their husbands and Amy; with 11 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
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