Ray Gregorek was a gem of a guy

FROM KEITH GROLLER

I tell people all the time that if someone passes away that you think I should know about it, please let me know.

I try to read the obit page every day, but sometimes I don't.

And right now, I feel very badly that I missed the passing of Ray Gregorek on July 23 and did not get to pay my respects to the family. Ray died at age 68 after a brief battle with cancer. I just learned about this from my former Morning Call colleague Ted Meixell at a Blue Mountain League game on Monday night.

In my business, you get to know a lot of people. Some when you see them in a restaurant, shopping mall or IronPigs game, you want to avoid. You put your head down, turn away, and hope they don't see you.

But that was never the case with Ray Gregorek. I looked forward to seeing him, and even sought him out if he didn't see me first. He was a true gem with a great personality.

I knew Ray best as the father of former Bethlehem Catholic and Lehigh standout Mike Gregorek. Another son, Brian, played for Lafayette and we got a lot of mileage from the intra-Gregorek rivalry over the years.

Here's a picture of the whole family at the 140th Lehigh-Lafayette game in 2004 at Fisher Stadium in Easton. Ray's wife Marilyn and daughter Allison are also in the photo (below):

Gregoreks Ray loved both schools and Bethlehem Catholic, even though he was a teacher and coach at Freedom for six years.

Ray was a proud member of the Becahi booster club and Lehigh's famous South Side Boosters who travel to all of the games, no matter where the Mountain Hawks are playing. Whether I bumped into him at Goodman Stadium or at Colgate or Holy Cross or on College Hill, Ray always made me smile.

I was very shocked and quite saddened when I heard about this on Monday and want to publicly express my deepest sympathies to the Gregorek family.

The world is a little less nicer of place without Ray in it.

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/