Ray Fedde was born in Denver and grew up in Park Hill. His mother, Gladys, had a nursing degree from Denver’s Presbyterian Hospital and his father, Oscar, was a jobber for Continental Oil Company and owned a petroleum bulk plant. He is a product of a mixed marriage. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Norway (Lutheran) while his maternal grandparents were Swedish (Presbyterian). His sister, Helen, was three years older. There were lots of relatives as both parents had seven siblings. There were cousins to play with when he visited family in Fowler, Colorado or York, Nebraska.

Even as a child, Ray loved taking things apart to see how they worked: radios, clocks or bikes.  He was fascinated by making hydrogen gas and was resourceful in obtaining chemicals. Cousin Paul, at CU, provided both chemicals and equipment. Ray and a friend made gunpowder to be used in cap guns or rockets. Once he made too much hydrogen sulfide but survived.  

Ray attended Park Hill Elementary, Gove Junior High and East High School, where he joined the Navy Reserve. After graduating in 1954, he attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota to study liberal arts, then went on to Colorado School of Mines for metallurgic engineering. After a year, Ray decided that college was not for him. His dyslexia has always made academics difficult. He activated his Navy Reserve and was sent to Norman, Oklahoma, Memphis, Tennessee and  Biloxi, Mississippi. Early in his service, he took a test for electrical specialties and aced the test.  He was sent to three different training programs to learn to maintain a high-altitude radar system. Ray appreciates that the teaching methodology which accommodated his dyslexia allowed him to be successful. With probable orders to Oahu, Ray and LeNee Streeter married and they moved to Eva Beach, HI, where daughter, Kerry, was born.

Ray was assigned as a radio operator with VR21 transport squadron which flew around the Pacific. On crew’s rest, he could explore Japan and visited the giant bronze Buddha at  Kamakura. He repaired LORAN navigation receivers when at home in the shop at Barbers Point. After two years, Ray’s Navy enlistment was up so he and his family moved back to the Park Hill neighborhood and they had Chris and Amy. He assumed the jobbership of Continental Oil Company from his father and ran it for 15 years.  

Ray has always enjoyed sculpture and had been inspired by the life-size bronze grizzly bear at the Museum of Nature and Science and the Buddha in Japan. Starting small, he had been fabricating and casting silver jewelry. Ray’s Pastor Vogel at Our Savior Lutheran Church asked him to cast chalices which would be made initially in wax for the first communion of new confirmands. The first year, it took two tries but they were finally successfully cast in his garage on Bellaire. The next year, they were cast in the studio he set up in an out-building on Quivas Street and it became a tradition. The Denver Post published an article about the unique project for the Church. Other small pieces were cast.    

Just as his oil business was shrinking, the Auraria community was being demolished to make way for the new campuses. That caused Oliver Lahr to close his foundry and sell his equipment.  Ray happened to see Lahr’s “Tools for Sale” sign so he purchased $10,000 worth of equipment and moved it to his station at 12th and Quivas. With the purchase came the opportunity to cast a 12-foot bronze fountain for the entryway drive at the new Broadmoor West Hotel in Colorado Springs. Thus, Fedde Bronze Works was born and the expansion of the foundry had begun.

Major sculptures have been cast and sent around the world to China, Saudi Arabia (commissioned by a prince), as well as to several states. Ray is especially proud of the Korean War Memorial in Atlantic City, NJ. There are too many in the Denver area for a complete list, but the Horse on a Red Chair at the Main Library, the bas- relief portraits at the Blair African-American Research Library on Welton, the MLK plaques on MLK Blvd., and an African Jesus crucifix at Regis University are examples. Ray was commissioned to design and cast a bronze  plaque honoring the work of his great aunt Elisabeth Fedde. She was a Lutheran Deaconess, trained as a nurse, who was assigned to work in Brooklyn, NY.  She ministered to the sick and the poor. She founded the Deaconess Hospital there and one in Minneapolis where she also worked. The plaque was installed in the church yard of her home church in Feda, Norway with Ray and Elisabeth attending.

Ray’s creative talents were utilized for many community projects. For one of Park Hill’s Elementary Carnivals, he built game stands, decorations, put together activities and was on the takedown team. The Denver Art Museum asked him to conduct some workshops to demonstrate the Lost Wax and sand-casting process in conjunction with their exhibits.

In the mid-70s, Ray and LeNee had parted ways and Ray was introduced by a friend to Elisabeth.  They married in 1980 and have a son, Matthew. Montview’s theology, programs, childcare provider, and proximity to his home on Eudora were attractive. They began attending and joined in 1986. It did not take long for Ray to volunteer to build a rainbow to go across the chancel for John Kuzma’s productions of Noye’s Fludde. For Musique and Masque productions, he built many props: creating a pumpkin carriage for Cinderella, carts for Brigadoon, a roof and milk cart for Fiddler on the Roof, eggs for Honk, Oz’s head (he played Oz), etc. Ray and Elisabeth have been involved briefly with Wayfarers, family retreats, MOB work trips and Deacons. Ray attended the Men’s Retreats, Open Chapel and adult education as he delved into spiritual and meditative practices.

Ray takes up hobbies enthusiastically. He purchased a neighbor’s Cal 20 sailboat and spent hours refitting it. It was moored at Cherry Creek Reservoir and Chatfield Reservoir. He and Elisabeth spent a week in San Diego where they took a course to be certified for bare boat sailing and a later course in Houston along with their son, Chris, to sail catamarans. They sailed bare boats in the Apostle Islands in Washington, the British Virgin Islands and Croatia. He became interested in celestial navigation and lately has been experimenting with electronics.

His daughter, Kerry, lives in Utah; Chris and Amy live in the metro area and Matthew lives in Minneapolis. Ray has five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He is grateful that he has had remarkably good fortune as his interests led him into very interesting lines of work. He has had good health and the service of fine medical teams when needed. He has had the support of family and friends throughout his life. He feels his family modeled the importance of helping others, compassion and kindness. Those principles have guided his life.

– Submitted by Brooke Durland and Ray Fedde