Raymond E. Leigh Jr.

ELIZABETHTOWN LEIGH, RAYMOND E. JR., died peacefully Saturday November 17, 2007, at Baptist Hospital East in Louisville, KY, following several months of a fierce battle against cancer. Called "Junie," by many in his family, Ray was born on December 28, 1941, in Louisville, where he graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1959. Since 1972 he had lived near Elizabethtown with Joyce, his wife of 43 years. Ray was best known for the many surveying projects he completed at such prominent locations as Bernheim Forest, Jim Beam Distillery, Publishers Printing Company and the Abraham Lincoln Homesite in Hodgenville, KY. He originally developed his surveying skills with the US Army Corps of Engineers in Louisville in the early 1960s. In 1970, after receiving his professional land surveyor's license, Ray left the Corps and started Leigh Land Surveys. He was one of the first surveyors in private practice to use Global Positioning System technology in his surveys. In his profession he was recognized as "a surveyor's surveyor," and fellow surveyors across the state called on him for assistance with technical issues as well as with complex boundary surveys. He was a former president of the Louisville Astronomical Society and furthered his interest in that science by building his own large telescopes to include grinding and polishing the lenses for them. At a time when the concept of using solar energy to heat and cool a residence was in its infancy, Ray designed and built his own passive-solar home. In 1999 that beautiful A-frame structure was totally destroyed by a fire that also consumed practically all of the personal possessions that Ray and Joyce owned. Ray saw the loss as another challenge to be overcome and he designed a geothermal two-story home to sit on the same site as the original. Together with the household possessions, the fire destroyed all of Ray's surveying records and instruments as well as his prized telescopes. Also lost were the many historical survey plats he prized so highly, especially ones by George Rogers Clark. As he had done with the house, Ray rebuilt his surveying business. In the early 1980s Ray had worked with then State Representative John Harper and other local surveyors to codify the state plane coordinate system for Kentucky. Later, he was the original representative from the Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors (KAPS) to the Geographic Information Advisory Council of Kentucky. He helped organize the 11-county chapter of KAPS and was responsible for naming it The Falls of the Ohio Chapter. He served on the three-person committee that drafted the original minimum standards for land surveying in Kentucky. Over the past 20 years he had held various leadership and committee positions in KAPS. An elected county surveyor for many terms, Ray personally organized the Kentucky Association of County Surveyors so that group would have a recognized voice and presence in the commonwealth. An avid golfer, he eagerly anticipated the annual golf outing at the St. X class reunions and golfing trips to Florida with his brothers and close friends to play various courses. His lifelong love for mechanical power and speed was embodied in his Corvette and in the powerboat he and the family used for watersports. Ray was preceded in death by his mother Loretta Eggen; his father, Raymond E. Leigh Sr.; his half brother, Gordon Gaddie; and his half sister, Tillie Gilpin. In addition to his wife Joyce, Ray is survived by his daughters, Jacque Krupinski (Jody) and their children Kristina, Josh and Kelli; Patti Leigh and her daughter, Ashleigh Raye Hoter; his brothers, Phillip "Wayne" Leigh (Joan), of Louisville, and their children Christopher and Philip Jr.; Richard "Dickie" Leigh (Joanne), of Nebo, NC, and their daughter, Jennifer Siegfreid; and numerous nieces and nephews. The funeral service will be conducted noon Wednesday at St. James Catholic Church. Visitation: 2:30 -8 p.m. Tuesday at the Brown Funeral Home, 306 College St., Elizabethtown.