Few escaped Ray Cushman when he was looking for money.
Whether it was selling light bulbs to help the blind or raising money for Habitat for Humanity, Cushman, who died Sept. 20 at age 98, was unstoppable.
A memorial service is planned at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 8 at Christ Church United Methodist, 690 Colorado Blvd.
“He just had a gift for fundraising,” said his son, John Doug las Cushman of Corinth, Texas. “He’d talk to someone about a project and walk away with a check. And the person seemed happy to have given.”
“He was a good talker and showed enough authority and power that people just gave,” said his daughter, Ann Cushman of Box Elder, S.D. “He was easygoing, but he always knew where he was going,” she said.
Cushman enlisted his wife and children in a project going door-to-door selling lightbulbs and brooms for a Lions Club project to help the blind.
The organization still helps the blind and has done so since 1925, when Helen Keller appealed to an international Lions meeting to lead a “crusade against darkness and become knights of the blind.”
No cause escaped Cushman. He enlisted his teenage son to hand out American Cancer Society leaflets in their town, Maryville, Mo.
“I was in my rebellious years, and I was furious that he asked me,” said John Cushman, laughing. So, he handed out the brochures as he smoked cigarettes.
His dad never brought up the smoking until years later, “when he ribbed me about it,” John Cushman said.
After retiring from the world of business, Ray Cushman moved to Denver and shifted into high gear with volunteering.
He raised money for Habitat for Humanity, was on the board of the Lions Eye Institute at Fitzsimons and raised money for Warren Village, an east Denver center for single moms.
Cushman helped Warren staff with orienting new residents, said chief executive Sue Mohrman.
“That takes a good bit of moxie, but Ray loved and appreciated people,” she said.
“Someone would tell Ray he’d give $1,000, and Ray would say, ‘No, I need $2,500,’ and he’d get it,” Mohrman said. “He was fireball and a go-getter.”
Warren Village named its family center for him.
Arthur Ray Cushman was born Aug. 3, 1907, in Vernon County, Mo. He had a degree from Central Methodist College in Fayette, Mo., and was a highway patrolman and later a coach and teacher.
Then he opened a business selling appliances and Goodyear tires in Maryville. Later, he went into real estate.
He married Cathran Furby in 1938; they later divorced. He wed Frances Moser Downing in 1982; she died in August.
In addition to his son and daughter, he is survived by three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-820-1223.
