My name is Richard Ray. I grew up in a small town in Arizona. By the time I was 8 I could ride from one side of town to the other on a bicycle. The town was Mesa, Arizona. We have both grown up a lot since then. I was the eighth of eleven children born to Betty and Ellsworth Ray. I have two older brothers,five older sisters, one younger brother and two younger sisters. We almost always had one or two extras living in the house. There was plenty of work to go around. We were taught to work hard, respect others and be honest in all that we did. In our small town we were taught that our family name and heritage was a valuable asset to be honored and protected.
I went to Edison Elementary, Kino Jr. High, Westwood High School and Mesa Community College for one year. We lived on a large lot, populated by a cow or two and usually at least one horse. I milked a cow off and on for what seemed to be a good part of my life--from 2nd grade until about fourth grade. We had a number of fabulous plum, apricot, pear and peach trees. We sold fruit on the sidewalk and occasionally to Wright's market--if they were lucky. They were by far and away the best plums ever grown. There was a lot of lawn to be mowed as well as oleander bushes and a rose bush hedges starting at Fourth Street (now University Dr.) and ending at 3rd street. It seemed like a lot work to maintain that hedge; But I think that was my dad's intent. The lawns got considerably bigger when my parents decided to be a good neighbor to the newly built Episcopalian church next door by getting rid of the smelly cows and flies that came with them. That left two very well fertilized, irrigated fields to mow.
When I turned eight my dad convinced me to spend the $30 I had saved to buy small palm trees for 25 cents each. I later purchased my brother's palm treeas so that I eventually was pruning and caring for 250 palm trees. They got harder to trim as I got more capable of trimming. You could say we grew up together. My father told me that when people asked what kind of palm trees I raised, I could say they were mission palms. That turned out to be a perfect segway into a discussion of why I wanted to go on a mission and a discussion of my religious beliefs. The subject actually came up a lot due to the scars and frequently bleeding hands that I got from getting the thorns stuck into the back of my, arms and hands. I actually felt very proud of the over 50 scars on the back of one hand. I earned them with honest hard labor. I never much liked wearing gloves.
I was a good student, but not an extremely serious one. I was very serious about a variety of sports and school activities--especially basketball, Tennis was a close second. My dad and I played as doubles partners at 5:30 in the morning year around. Eventually it was just he and I playing until he was about 85 years old.
Shortly after turning 19, I left for a church mission to Japan for two years. It was an amazing time of growth and development and the two years was over much too soon. I learned to love and understand the asian people and their culture. It was a bit of a culture shock coming back to real life in the states.
Upon return from my mission I worked briefly as a carpenter beforebeginning my studies in chemistry at BYU. It is there that I met the mother of my seven children. It didn't take me long to realize that she would be the perfect person to raise our family. We were engaged a week after our first date. She did an amazing job at raising seven wonderful and successful children. She had a tougher time training me.
I grew up being fascinated with chemisty, This was in large part due to an amazing Dow Chemical exhibit at the 1964 New York World's Fair. It was my favorite subject in high school. Every resume writing assignment given to me between fifth grade and graduation from college was an application as a chemist to Dow Chemical. I even worked as a chemist for U.S. Steel, Geneva Works for one year before going to Chiropractic College. My mother had other ideas.
From as far back as I can remember, my mother knew I would someday be a doctor. Not just any kind of doctor, but a family doctor. I was even fired from a job that had become too dangerous: Because, and I quote, " your mother would never forgive me if you injured your hands and it kept you from becoming a doctor". I majored in chemistry in college with plans of attending Medical School.,But the more I investigated the direction Medicine was going, the more I knew it conflicted with my core belief system. I was much more interested in helping people to become healthy than I was treating sick people with pharmacologic prescriptions. Due to a number of high school auto accidents, I had gone to chiropractors much more frequently than I had gone to medical doctors, Nevertheless I really didn't know that much about chiropractic. I had been told by my wife's medical doctor that they studied somewhere in Texas for 3-4 months and then hung out their shingle and called themselves doctors. He even gave me a book about chiropractic, that quite frankly was an embarassment to him and his profession. It was a book devoid of facts and full of name calling and inuendo. I felt it very unbecoming of a learned person to recommend such a shoddy piece of yellow journalism
After deciding against Medicine, I determined that I would keep my options open by enroling in a 5 year joint MBA-Juris doctorate program. When my oldest brother found out I was going to law school he called me and told me that the practice of law was not something that I would enjoy. And that before enrolling, he wanted me to come to California (on his dime) and talk to his chiropractor and investigate the possibility of becoming a chiropractor. After taking a much closer look at the excellent education that was available, I decided that the opportunity to become what I had always wanted to become was again a possibility. Not as a medical family practitioner, but as a chiropractor.
I am eternally indebted to my wise and loving big brother for helping me find my life's calling. I cancelled my enrollment to law and business school and went to work for U.S. Steel. A year later I moved to Davenport Iowa and enrolled at Palmer College of Chiropractic. During my studies at Palmer College I served as the president of the Student International Chiropractic Society and subsequently as chancellor of SICA presidents. This allowed me to do a little traveling. After seeing different parts of the country, I determined there was no place like home. I returned to the Mesa -Chandler-Gilbert Area where I have practiced since November of 1983.
Along the way I have finished a post doctoral program in orthopedics from Southern California Chiropractic College and numerous certifications in nutrition, radiology, and cold laser therapy. My background in Chemistry has been a great help in continuing my post doctoral studies in these fields.
My life's mission has been to learn as much as I can to help as many as I can realize their full potential both physically and spritually. I try my best to keep my doors open to anyone willing to put forth the effort to attain their maximum health and wellness. I work early morning and late evening hours and keep my fees very reasonable. I want health care to be something that anybody can afford at a reasonable cost of time and money. I believe my most important job is that of a teacher. I love to lift the quality of life through inspiring healthier lifestyle choices in others.
I have spent my life learning how to evaluate your health status and have invested hundreds of thousands in the most sophisticated equipment, education and resources to facilitate your recovery to maximum health and wellness. Our office is the local center for LazrPulsr System of training and education. With the most advanced cold laser system available in the world along with our training in kinesiologic nutritional testing, we are able to treat a wide variety of medical conditions. Our treatments are natural, safe, effective and much less expensive than traditional medical care. Our care is healing from the inside out, not treatment of symptoms from the outside in. When you are feeling better from our care, it is because you are better. I welcome anyone that is serious about their health to our office. We are here to serve you.
Dr. Ray
