By Jason Reagan
Most regular customers at Bare Essentials Natural Market
in Boone know Ray Werhane by name —in fact several
dropped by to wish him Happy Birthday in September.
Since 2001, Ray has been as much the public face of the
Boone store as are owners Ben Henderson and Mary Underwood.
Bare Essentials clerk
Ray Werhane, right, gives back change and a smile
to customers.
Photo by
Mark Mitchell |
At 85, Ray continues to do what he loves most —work
with people.
Like many of his generation, Ray’s future path was
set by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was
a senior in high school in suburban Chicago and soon found
himself at Oberlin College in Ohio both in regular classes
and in the Navy’s V-12 officer training program, which
would eventually lead to a stint in the naval supply-corps
program at Harvard Business School and later a master’s
degree in administration.
Ray’s unit was one of the first contingency to enter
Hiroshima after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in 1945.
After the war, Ray worked on Madison Avenue in New York
City’s advertising industry and stuck around the bubble-gum
industry as a marketing professional from 1947-1959.
Stints in the non-profit and real-estate sector eventually
led Ray to the High Country via the familiar route of Florida.
In 2001, Henderson interviewed Ray for a job.
“First, when I interviewed Ray for a job eight years
ago, I looked at his resume and, after a few minutes of
the interview, I told him I felt he should be interviewing
me,” he said.
Ray, who is married to Linda Werhane, worked at Bare Essentials
full-time as customer-service manager until illness forced
him into a part-time role in 2007.
“Many folks mistakenly have thought Ray and I were
father and son,” Henderson said.
“I consider that to be one of the greatest compliments
I have ever received.”
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