Erman Ray Dotson, Jr.

Mr. Erman Ray Dotson, Jr. passed away on Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at Piedmont University Hospital in Augusta after a brief illness. A celebration of life will be held Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. at First Christian Church of Sandersville. Reverend Cecil Cook will officiate. The family will greet friends after the service.

Ray was born October 12, 1929 in Petroleum, West Virginia, the fourth of five children born to Erman Ray Dotson, Sr. and Susie Arman Dotson. He grew up on a farm in the mountains and was home-schooled his first grade by his mother. He attended the rest of his elementary grades in a one-room schoolhouse taught by his father.  Ray was known to his friends and family as Junior in those days.  Their home fronted on the B &O railroad line, during the depression years his mother often fed hobos who showed up at the door while the freight train they hitchhiked on was stopped in Petroleum to take on water and fuel.

Ray survived a bout of Typhoid Fever when he was about seven or eight years old and was hospitalized for many days. His sister, Millie, remembered it as a scary time for the family.

He was brought up in the Church of Christ in Petroleum, WV, and was baptized in Goose Creek at age 14. His father, Erman Sr., was a devoted elder and leader of the small church and was the main one who kept the little congregation going.

Ray attended high school at Cairo High School in Cairo, WV, and played baritone in the high school band.  He graduated in 1947 and was president of his class. He began college at Georgia Tech on a Navy ROTC scholarship. He was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity at Tech and worked part-time as a breakfast cook at the fraternity house as partial compensation for his room and board.  He also played baritone in the Georgia Tech Band.  Ray spent the summers starting in 1951, while at Tech, on midshipman's training cruises. Ray had never seen the ocean before joining the Navy and was on a cruise out of San Francisco Bay when he first did.

Ray graduated from Georgia Tech in 1951 with a degree in Ceramic Engineering.  His older brother Jim and wife Irma drove down to Atlanta to attend his graduation, bringing along Ray's mom and dad. They were deservedly quite proud of their son.

Ray was married June 14, 1952 to Gloria Gunter in the chapel at the Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta. They met at a bus stop in Atlanta, near the church while they were both attending youth meetings there.  At the time, Gloria was going through nurse's training at Crawford W. Long Hospital in Atlanta to become a Registered Nurse.  June 14 of this year would have been their 70 ^th wedding anniversary.

Payback for Ray's Navy scholarship at Georgia Tech was active duty in the US Navy from 1951 to 1954 based in Norfolk, Virginia. Ray and Gloria's first child, Jeffrey, was born there in 1954.

After the Navy, Ray started his career in Sandersville, Georgia in the kaolin business at United Clay Mines in 1954.  Their daughter, Cindy, was born there in 1956.  A few years later, he went to work at Georgia Kaolin in Dry Branch, GA and later moved the family to Macon where they bought their first house.  They moved to Casper, Wyoming in 1960 where Ray oversaw the construction of a new bentonite processing plant for Benton Clay Company until 1963.  Their second son, Stephen, was born there in 1962.  The family returned to Sandersville in the summer of 1963, when Ray went to work for American Industrial Clay Company as plant engineer.  Ray and Gloria's fourth child, Ben, was born in Sandersville in 1964

Ray, Gloria, and family rejoined the First Christian Church congregation in Sandersville in 1963 after having attended there in the early 1950's.  Ray and Gloria have been active members there ever since, with Ray having served numerous terms as deacon, elder, and board chairman.  He has been an active (charter) member in the Gideons International organization for the past 50 years, speaking at various churches and distributing bibles.

Their present home on Pine Hill Way was built in 1968, with Ray acting as the general contractor. He and son, Jeffrey, built the kitchen cabinets for the house and did the electrical work and much of the finish work. Ray continued to build cabinets and pursue other woodworking projects as a sideline for many years.

His career in the kaolin industry evolved into environmental engineering at AIC and he won an award from the Georgia Mining Association in the mid 1970's for his slide show presentation on kaolin processing.

Ray broke his leg in an accident while cutting firewood on kaolin mining land west of Sandersville around Thanksgiving in the early 1970's.  Luckily, his three sons were with him at the time and were able to drive him to the hospital where his wife and nurse Gloria met them.  He recovered fine after being transported to Augusta for treatment by an orthopedic surgeon.

Ray semi-retired around 1985, working as a consulting environmental engineer for Georgia Kaolin, monitoring wells, and for Combustion Engineering, managing the impact of mining at Grave's Mountain near Lincolnton, GA.  He finally retired from those jobs around the age of 80.

Ray and Gloria continued to stay busy with various activities, including volunteer work at the ECF garden at WCRMC hospital in Sandersville (also repairing the US flag that flies there), time with children and grandchildren, as well as daily games of Scrabble, a pastime they started back in the early 1950's (their first Scrabble set was purchased at the Navy PX in Portsmouth, VA).  They passed the love of Scrabble along to their children and grandchildren, and a visit there always included a nightly game or two (with Ray the usual winner).

Ray relearned the art of cooking at the age of 90 and combed the internet for new recipes including cowboy beans, biscuits, and spiced pecans.

Ray is survived by his wife Gloria Dotson, sons Jeffrey Dotson, Stephen Dotson, and Ben Dotson of Marietta; daughter Cindy Jabaley (Rocky) of LaGrange; three grandchildren, Ramie Jabaley of Atlanta, Carol Jabaley-Smith (Cody) of Atlanta, and Tatum Dotson of Tampa, FL.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to the First Christian Church of Sandersville, P O Box 45, Sandersville, GA  31082.

May and Smith Funeral Directors is in charge of these arrangements.  Condolences may be made online at www.mayandsmithfuneraldirectors.com.