Raymond Rolland Nelson

The life of Raymond Rolland Nelson

Ray was born January 12, 1943, to Earl and Emma (Zenker) Nelson. He was raised on a farm in the middle of nowhere, North Dakota (Gascoyne).

After graduating from Scranton High School in 1961, he enlisted into the Air Force and was stationed in Portland, Oregon. While there he met the soon to be love of his life, Mary Wagner.

During his service he was sent to Okinawa during the Vietnam Conflict where he was a jet engine mechanic until the end of his career in 1967. Once he returned, he and Mary were married in Reno, Nevada on November 10, 1967.

West coast life was not for him and he missed the farm. The happy couple returned to North Dakota to help with the family farm until he took a seismograph exploration job which sent them to Sidney, Montana in 1975.

In 1978 they welcomed a daughter, Amy Denise, to the family. They couldn’t be more thrilled to receive this blessing, even though she had a mop of red hair.

He started his own drilling business, Nelson Auger, and was so proud of the work he did until the boom slowed in the 1990’s. He sold the equipment but stayed in the oil and gas industry to work for Cyclone Drilling as a mechanic and then later for Sheehan Trucking.

He retired in 2012, with time to do gardening and woodworking. Mary and Ray loved kids and they opened their homes to all nieces, nephews, friends and friends of friends. They always volunteered to babysit. He loved to take his niece Laney Sue to Home Depot to look at tools and buy wood for his projects. In 2015 his grandson Cash Saxton arrived, and he had a new little buddy to spend time with.

Ray was loved by all that met him. A soft-spoken man with a big heart. He will truly be missed.