Роберт Дольф Рэй: Айованың бұрынғы губернаторының өмірі мен қызметі

American politician

Robert Dolph Ray (September 26, 1928 – July 8, 2018) was an American lawyer and Republican politician. He served as the 38th governor of Iowa from January 16, 1969 to January 14, 1983. During his tenure as governor, Ray served as chair of the National Governors Association from 1975 to 1976; led to the passage of the Iowa Burials Protection Act of 1976, which was the first legislative act in the United States that specifically protected American Indian remains;

Ray was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1928. He graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1946. After high school, Ray served in the United States Army.

In 1969, Ray became the governor of Iowa. During Ray's time in office, the Iowa Constitution was modified, increasing the governor's term of office from two years to four years. Ray served as chair of the National Governors Association from 1975 to 1976. He also served as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, the Midwestern Governors Association, the Education Commission of the States and was the president of the Council of State Governments. As governor, Ray issued executive orders promoting civil rights, energy conservation, and paperwork reduction as well as establishing the Governor's Economy Committee, the Iowa Council for Children, the Task Force on Government Ethics, the Science Advisory Council, and the Iowa High Technology Commission. Ray signed legislation establishing the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women in 1974. In 1976, Ray, along with his wife Billie Ray and three daughters, became the first governor of Iowa to occupy Terrace Hill, the official governor's mansion. Ray served as a delegate to the United Nations Conference on Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland in 1979. Ray was an advocate of the nickel deposit on aluminum cans. Ray's tenure in office was notable for his humanitarianism on behalf of Southeast Asian Tai Dam refugees. Ray announced that the state of Iowa would accept 1,500 additional refugees in January 1979. Ray wrote letters to President Jimmy Carter and other governors asking them to support greater admissions of boat people. Opinion polls from the period demonstrated Ray's refugee resettlement and relief efforts were very controversial. Ray also enacted the first laws in the U. S. that protected American Indian graves. In the early 1970s, Maria Pearson was appalled that the skeletal remains of Native Americans were treated differently from those of caucasians.

After leaving the governor's office in 1983, Ray became CEO of Life Investors Inc, an insurance company. Ray was co chair (along with Bob Edgar) of the bipartisan National Coalition on Health Care.

In 2005, Ray became the only governor or former governor to have received Iowa's highest civilian honor, the Iowa Award, by the Iowa Centennial Memorial Commission.

In 1951, Ray married Billie Lee Hornberger, his high school sweet heart. Ray had three daughters.