Ray Carl­son

Ray Carl­son, age 99, of St. Ger­main, WI passed away on Sep­tem­ber 7, 2024, with his daugh­ter Lynn by his side. The fam­ily is com­forted know­ing that he went home to be with his Heav­enly Fa­ther.   

Ray was born on May 18, 1925, in Mil­wau­kee, WI, a son of the late John and Pearl Cwik­lin­ski. He grad­u­ated from River­side High School in Mil­wau­kee be­fore being drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corp. He served three years as a pilot and com­mu­ni­ca­tions spe­cial­ist. He then worked var­i­ous jobs be­fore start­ing his ca­reer with the City of Mil­wau­kee. Over his 25 years with them he worked his way up from being a drafts­man to tax su­per­vi­sor.   

In 1952 he mar­ried Ar­line (El­liott). They lived in Mil­wau­kee full time and va­ca­tioned on Found Lake in St. Ger­main. To com­plete their fam­ily, they adopted twin girls. He shared his love of the out­doors with them. To­gether they went on long walks, took the kids water ski­ing and boat­ing, and taught them to fish. He had a lot of pride and joy in re­mod­el­ing his cot­tage. Later in life he de­signed and built his re­tire­ment home to re­place the cot­tage. Ray loved his North­woods home. He could often be seen on his daily five-mile walks. In the sum­mer months he could be seen swim­ming halfway across the lake and back. This, along with time with his fam­ily, and ex­tended fam­ily is what helped him flour­ish for 99 years.   

After Ar­line passed in 1992, Ray mar­ried Jane (Van Kirk) in 2004. They en­joyed their re­tire­ment to­gether in the North­woods, split­ting their time be­tween St. Ger­main and Three Lakes, until her pass­ing in 2008.   

Ray was a long-time mem­ber of St. Ger­main Com­mu­nity Church. He served as an usher for many years and on con­sis­tory.   

Ray is sur­vived by his daugh­ter, Lynn Carl­son; grand­sons, Justin (Angie) Siejkowski and Stephen Siejkowski; ex­tended fam­ily, Steven (Susan) Van Kirk, Nancy (Gregg) Henckel and many grand­chil­dren and great-grand­chil­dren who will miss Ray dearly.   

Ray joins his heav­enly fam­ily, Ar­line Carl­son, Jane Carl­son; daugh­ter: Lisa (née Carl­son) Mano­jlovic; sis­ter, Dorothy Cwik­lin­ski.   

A fu­neral ser­vice will be at 11a.m. on Sat­ur­day Sep­tem­ber 14, 2024, at the St. Ger­main Com­mu­nity Church, 1315 STH 155 St. Ger­main, WI. Vis­i­ta­tion will be held one hour prior to the ser­vice with a lun­cheon to fol­low. A pri­vate in­ter­ment will take place at a later date.

Arrange­ments by Gaffney-Busha Fu­neral Home, Eagle River. On­line con­do­lences may be ex­pressed at gaffney-busha.com                 

PAID OBIT­U­ARY