Raymond Everett Fuller was born in Dennison, Ohio, on November 3rd, 1927, to Otis and Irene Fuller. He graduated from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, with a degree in biology in 1949 and entered The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1950, matriculating in 1954. While in medical school, Ray married Lillian Louise Martin on March 19th, 1951. Their first child, Steven, was born in 1952, followed in rapid succession by Timothy, James, and Sharon in less than five years. Their last child, Charles, joined the family in 1961. Ray is survived by his five children, sixteen grandchildren, and twenty-three great-grandchildren.

Doctor Fuller completed his internship at Blodgett Memorial Hospital in Grand Rapids from 1954 to 1956. For two years during the Korean War era, Ray served as a Captain in the US Army Medical Corp at Camp Leroy Johnson in New Orleans. He did his residency in internal medicine at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan from the summer of 1958 until 1961, when he returned with his family to Grand Rapids to join an internal medicine practice in southeast Grand Rapids. In the 1960s, Ray specialized in cardiology and began to introduce new diagnostic techniques to detect heart disease. In the decades that followed, Ray and his colleagues implemented innovative heart treatments, particularly cardiac catheterization, in a practice that became the most extensive in West Michigan. In 1973, Ray was elected a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the same year served as President of the Michigan Heart Association. After Ray retired from practice in 1997, Spectrum Health awarded him member of the Distinguished Physician Society in 2010, recognizing him as Distinguished Physician Emeritus in 2019.

This brief curriculum vitae of Raymond Fuller's professional life does not tell the half of his story, or even its most important parts. "Ray Fuller," as he always introduced himself, gave the best of his life in service to his church, community and far-off places. He grew up the son of a railroader in Eastern Ohio during the Great Depression. At a tent revival meeting in Canton, Ohio, a preacher telling the Gospel story of Jesus moved Ray to go forward and be baptized at the age of nine. While in high school during WW2, he showed up with three other boys when, in a student assembly, he heard his principal invite those interested in becoming medical doctors to come to his office afterward. Ray nearly died twice: the first time, while an undergrad at Capital, his appendix burst and he developed severe peritonitis which required surgery and hospitalization. The second time, at the age of 70, he was diagnosed with colon cancer and was operated upon by a surgeon whom he had trained while the man was an intern at Blodgett, Dr. Ray Lovell. He attributed his survival both times to skilled doctors, guided by God.

Ray joined the Christian Medical Society and took Lillian with him on medical mission trips while his children were still in school. The first was a three-month trip to Lahore, Pakistan, where Ray served at the United Christian Hospital and Lillian, dressed like the Pakistani women, made house calls on local families. Ray brought along his 8mm camera and filmed the adventure, later editing and adding voiceover from missionary Lee Turner, and showed the film in churches back in the US. Lillian accompanied Ray on some twenty medical mission trips to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Thailand and the Philippines.

Ray served as an elder in his church and helped to start new churches in the greater Grand Rapids area, including Kentwood Christian and Jenison Christian. Believing that all Christians are called to serve and that to build a church took more than money, Ray invested himself as he worked alongside the ministers to teach and shepherd growing congregations. He shared his time, knowledge and compassion with families who were struggling with medical problems. Some of those families "adopted" Ray.

At heart, Ray understood that a man's life is not measured on the basis of awards, plaques on the wall, and yellowed press clippings – things that do not last beyond physical death. He had learned early in life to "lay up treasures in heaven" and as he drew near to the end of his life, he wanted everyone to know the importance of that truth. Beginning Easter Sunday, 2024, Ray began to send short text messages of Scripture or hymn verses to his extended family and friends. Ray sent his last text on Sunday, July 14th, the day before he went to be with his Lord. It read as follows, unedited: "Your unfailing love will last forever. Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens. Ps 89:2 This is the Lord's Day let us rejoice and be glad in it, Have a blessed day, [angel emoji]."

It is well.