News

By Emily J. Minor

    LANTANA — Ray Flow, the son of North Carolina tobacco sharecroppers who left his small hometown to join the service and then moved to Florida to marry, start a family and surround himself in community, died May 19.
    Mr. Flow was 76.
    Widowed in 1997 when his first wife, Sharon, died of breast cancer, Mr. Flow married again in 2005 and had spent those years doing all the things he loved, said his wife, Connie. The couple met in 1998 at the gym where they worked out, and had been together since.
    For years, they traveled, played squash and racquetball, went horseback riding and snow skiing, and roller bladed and danced. When Mr. Flow became sick with cancer about a year ago, it was a shock because he had always been so healthy and active, Connie Flow said.
    “Ray had a big personality and he was Type A, so we were never home,” she said, adding it was a way of life she loved as well.
    A well-known businessman in Lantana and Lake Worth, Mr. Flow and his first wife established A Little Dude Ranch child care centers in 1973 — well before child care centers were considered the everyday norm.
    “He’d go from Dude Ranch to Dude Ranch and have the children sing,” Connie Flow said. “That was his job, to make them happy.”
    Most years, he and the kids were on the float for the Lake Worth Holiday Parade. And he’d often run into former students, all grown up, who would remember him from when they were little, his wife said.
    After selling the day cares in 2005, Ray and Connie Flow invested in Lake Worth Storage — an easier business to run with less overhead, fewer regulations and a much smaller staff. This allowed them to pursue the things they loved, she said.
    Mr. Flow also invested in properties through the years and at the time of his death managed more than 175 duplexes in and around Lake Worth, she said.
    One employee, Marge Lagendyk, stayed with him through all his ventures for nearly 40 years.
    By all accounts, Mr. Flow was a self-made man, relying on hard work, great ideas, a head for business and true grit.
    A high school sports star in Broadway, N.C., Mr. Flow wanted to attend college after graduation, but his father rejected the idea. Instead, Mr. Flow joined the U.S. Army and was stationed for a time in Germany. When he got out, he worked in Myrtle Beach, where he met his first wife. The two married in Daytona Beach in 1965.
    After moving to Lantana, Mr. Flow was an immediate community mover and shaker. He loved Toastmasters and was active in many civic groups, including the Salvation Army, the Rotary Club, Golf for a Cure (an Alzheimer’s research funding foundation), the Heritage Foundation, Palm Beach Gator Ski Club and the Republican Club.
    Encouraged by his first wife, he eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in international business from Florida Atlantic University. He was also a member of Calvary United Methodist Church and later Lakeside Presbyterian Church, and sang in the choirs for both.
    Besides Connie Flow he is survived by daughters Keely and Melanie “Mimi” Flow; siblings Charmion Spainhour, and Tony, Jenette and Ben Flow; and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held 3-6 p.m. June 3 at Atlantis Country Club, 190 Atlantis Blvd., Atlantis.