TORRINGTON – Funeral services for Melvin Ray Leach, 84, will be 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, at East Gate Baptist Church with Pastor Tim Sparks officiating. Burial with military honors will follow in the Valley View Cemetery. Visitation will be Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Colyer Funeral Home in Torrington.
Ray died Oct. 27, 2017, at Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, Colo. Memorials may be given to Waggin Tails Animal Shelter, Operation Heal Our Patriots or East Gate Baptist Church.
Colyer Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements. Condolences may be sent to www.colyerfuneralhome.com.
Ray was born Oct. 7, 1933 in Bedford County, Penn., the son of Melvin and Hulda (Ritchey) Leach. He graduated Morrison’s Cove High School in Martinsburg, Penn. He attended Penn State College. He served three years in the United States Marine Corp. He married Dorothy Bold on June 7, 1958, in Portsmouth, N. H., and then worked at the M&M Ranch in Loxahatchee, Fla., as a show cattle herdsman.
He started work for the Florida Department of Agriculture as a livestock marketing specialist in 1962 and was there until 1977. In 1977 he started working for the USDA in the same capacity and retired from there in 1999. They moved to Torrington in 1979.
Ray enjoyed mules, horses, leather work, hunting, reading and traveling. He was a member of the East Gate Baptist Church.
Ray is survived by his wife Dorothy of Torrington; daughters Rebecca (Edward) Gitthens of Glendo and Melissa (Randy) Caldwell of Edgerton, Mo.; sons Scott (Sheila) Leach of Glendo and Samuel (Emily) Leach of Portland, Ore.; a brother James Leach of Bakers Summit, Penn.; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers Clair, Roy, Harold and Joseph; and one sister Edna Kagarise.
