Farmington Obituary: Ray Elling, 89

Ray H. Elling, Ph.D., 89, died peacefully on Friday, November 23, 2018 in the University of Connecticut’s John Dempsey Hospital after a very brief stay. Aware of his options and their risks, Ray chose palliative care rather than restorative care and donated his body to science. No public memorial is planned at this time.

Born July 23, 1929 to immigrant Swedish parents, Ray grew up the youngest of three sons in Minnesota and soon became an avid and accomplished outdoorsman, fisherman, hunter, skier and conservationist. His love for and interaction with nature continued throughout his life and found expression as an active member of Trout Unlimited’s Farmington Valley chapter.

In early adulthood, Ray joined the U.S. Army and served in the reconstruction effort in Japan and then in Austria, where he met and married Margit Schreiber in 1952. He returned to the U.S. with Margit, began a family and pursued graduate studies in the nascent field of medical sociology. He received his Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from Yale University.

Ray’s deep devotion to the dignity of each individual found its professional expression in his research and instruction in cross-cultural public health. Always one to build bridges, he sparked the development of many interdisciplinary graduate programs that introduced physicians, nurses, social workers, sociologists, epidemiologists, psychologists and more to one another, to each other’s professions and to the people whom they sought to serve. His studies of health care systems and outcomes in a variety of cultures resulted in a two-year appointment as a consultant to the World Health Organization in the early 1970s. He was also instrumental in founding the Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health, Inc. back in 1981.

While a prolific researcher and an accomplished writer/editor of scholarly works such as Traditional & Modern Medical Systems (June 1981), Struggle for Workers' Health: A Study of Six Industrialized Countries (February 1986) and Health and health care for the urban poor: A study of Hartford's North End (Connecticut health services research series) 1974, his real passion was always for teaching and he leaves behind a generation, if not two, of researchers, academicians and practitioners. His final academic position was as a founding faculty member of the University of Connecticut Medical School. Even in retirement, Ray worked to make sure that UConn medical students were well instructed in the needs of the underserved and overlooked.

Though never a “politician” in the common sense of that word, Ray, a long-time resident of Farmington, served on its Human Relations Commission and the Farmington Democratic Town Committee. But it was activism on behalf of the downtrodden and the overlooked that really engaged him in his private life. From his earliest years he was an ardent peace activist, supporter of women’s rights, champion of ethnic and race relations, and, lately, advocate for disability rights.

In this latest role, he was an officer in the Citizens Coalition for Equal Access (CC=A) and with them successfully pushed the Unionville, Farmington and West Hartford branches of the U.S. Postal Service to make their services properly accessible to people with disabilities. These successes led to Concurrent Resolutions calling for automatic doors in all Federally funded buildings which the U.S. Senate unanimously approved. Not content with federal buildings, Ray moved on to push for mandating the use of “universal design” in all Federally funded projects meaning, "the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design." (The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University)

He is survived by his wife of 27 years, Marilyn, his eldest son, Ron, his youngest son, Martin, his daughter-in-law, Xenia, his grandchildren, Tyson, Jessica, Jason and Kristofer and many great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 38 years, Margit, and his second son, Gerard.

Ray’s work and his life touched and benefited so many, most of whom he did not know, and so we can say of him, as he oft said to others, “Good on ya, mate!”

Monetary gifts in memory of Ray Elling can be directed to any charitable organization bettering humanity. You may, if you wish, target your generosity to Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health, Inc. (ConnectiCOSH), 683 North Mountain Road, Newington, CT 06111, with a memo in memory of Ray Elling, http://connecticosh.org/, or to Farmington Valley Trout Unlimited, c/o John DiVenere, 139 Hopmeadow Rd., Bristol, CT 06010, http://fvtu.org/.