Raymond Leo "Ray" Vaudreuil

Raymond Leo Vaudreuil, 92, died peacefully in Venice, FL on August 16, 2025. He was born in Providence, RI on January 24, 1933, the youngest child of Ethel and Leo Vaudreuil and baby brother to Gerald and Jean. Taught by his teacher mother in the one-room Mason Barney school house in Swansea, MA, he grew up a child of the Great Depression. The extended Barry family - aunts, uncles and cousins - lived near the family home on Barneyville Rd. Dinners included vegetables from Leo's garden. New England clam bakes were a family tradition. Ray remembered watching the "Great New England Hurricane of 1938" roll across the bay from the upstairs of his childhood home while his father was away working for the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA). He was 5 years old.

Ray attended Joseph Case High School in Swansea, MA where he was a member of the football team that his brother captained. The team was later inducted into the Case Hall of Fame. After high school, he attended the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where he graduated in 1954 with a Bachelor of Science in machine design.

Ray joined IBM in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1956. He married his first wife, Dorothy McNulty, in1955 and had four daughters: Sue, Diane, Lori and Amy. When his father-in-law, WWII veteran Bernard McNulty died, he welcomed his mother-in-law into his household.

In 1965, Ray accepted an IBM promotion in Vermont and moved his family to South Burlington. At IBM, Ray, born 30 years before TV was widely available in American homes, designed computer memory systems, and managed data centers, computer chip packaging and manufacturing departments. In 1968, a core matrix winding pattern he co-invented with fellow IBMers was patented by the U.S. Patent office.

While in Vermont, Ray was a member of the Ethan Allen Club, the Burlington Country Club and active in community affairs. His passions were golf, bowling and bridge - but especially golf. He golfed every weekend he could and in every tournament and league that he could - limited only by the winter and spring mud season weather in Vermont. He was one of the architects of the Burlington International Games (BIG) where U.S. athletes from Burlington, VT competed against Canadian athletes from sister town, Burlington, Ontario.

He supported his daughters in their schoolwork, sports and activities and had many friends. He was a patron of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Americas and St. Jude's. Summer vacations included lake houses and boating on Lake Champlain.

After 35 years at IBM, Ray "retired" in 1991. Ray married second wife, Ann Bowman, in 1988 and relocated to Carolina Beach, NC, where he could golf virtually year-round. Ray obtained his realtor and broker's licenses there and managed a property management firm for another 25 years, working until he was 84. He continued playing golf in leagues and tournaments in the Carolina Beach area into his 80s. Ray enjoyed spoiling his children and grandchildren at his beach home.

In his 60s and 70s, Ray battled different life-altering cancers that he conquered thanks in part to immunotherapy and in part to true grit. Also at this time his wife, Ann, was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. For 12 years, Ray supported and managed her symptoms at home until her death in 2019. Ray's last years were spent winning bridge games at his Independent Living home in Florida.

Ray is survived by his four daughters: Sue Falivene of Denver, NC, Diane Bruno and husband Glenn of Nokomis, FL, Lori Arner and husband Tom of Rutland, VT, and Amy Vaudreuil and husband Jerry Altland of Luray, VA; stepson Joe Bowman and wife Tammy of SC; as well as 13 grandchildren, 5 step grandchildren, and 14 great grandchildren.

Any donations can be made to your local Hospice organization at hospicefoundation.org.