Ray C. Sackett Page 560-561 - Ray C. Sackett, who is proprietor of the Grand Rapids district distributing agency of the Studebacker Corporation of America, and is one of the representative exponents of the automobile sales business in western Michigan, finds a due measure of satisfaction in advertising to this state as the place of his nativity. Mr. Sackett was born in the city of Albion, Calhoun county, Michigan, November 11, 1888, and is a son of James R. and Dora (Henderson) Sackett, he having been three years of age at the time of the family removal to Saginaw, in which city his parents passed the remainder of their lives, the active career of his father having been mainly one of association with the hardware and banking business. After completing his studies in the high school in Saginaw, Ray C. Sackett entered the University of Michigan, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1911, and with the degree of bachelor of engineering. During the ensuing three years he was employed in district offices of the Michigan Bell Telephone Company, and within this period he was located in Grand Rapids during an interval of nine months. Since 1914 he has maintained alliance with the great Studebaker Corporation of America. During the first six years of this association he was in the main sales and advertising office of the corporation, and during the last three years, 1917-20, he held the office of advertising manager. In 1917 the Studebaker main office was transferred from Detroit, Michigan, to South Bend, Indiana, where Mr. Sackett continued his effective service as advertising manager until 1920, when he resigned and went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he acquired an interest in the Studebaker distributing agency for that section of the Buckeye state. In December, 1922, he sold his interest in the business at Cincinnati and established his residence in Grand Rapids, where he has since continued the vital and successful proprietor of the Studebaker distributing agency for this section of Michigan. Mr. Sackett has received the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite of Masonic fraternity, besides being a noble of the Mystic Shrine, and in his home city he is a member of the Kiwanis and Peninsular clubs, besides being affiliated with the local lodge of Elks. He and his wife are communicants of Grace church, Protestant Episcopal. On the 10th of October, 1916, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sackett to Miss Helen K. Abbott, daughter of George E. Abbott, who is a prominent barker in the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Mr. and Mrs. Sackett have two children, Patricia Ann, who was born February 11, 1921, and James Russell, born September 26, 1925

Transcriber: Marcia Shears
Created: 13 December 2002