Ray has had a diverse writing and editing career. He has worked for a wide array of publications, including newspapers, trade magazines, and the F.W. Dodge construction news service, a division of McGraw-Hill that provides leads and plans and specs for contractors signed up with the service.

Ray has worn many hats in the world of publishing. He worked as a reporter for several newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He was managing editor for two trade magazines while working with VNU publishing. The first, called Retail Operations and Construction, focused on helping retailers, general contractors and anyone else involved with this type of building by providing stories on new products and building and maintenance techniques. During Ray's time with this publication he put together two research surveys, lead roundtable discussions at various tradeshows with contractors to track new trends in construction, and managed production of the magazine, which held a national audience of about 35,000.

Following VNU, Ray moved to Embroidery Monogram Business. Ray also served as managing editor for this publication and led a very successful embroidery competition that turned out to be one of the best we'd ever had in terms of quality and quantity of entries submitted.

Ray has also been a member of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), Toastmasters and the Magazine Association of Georgia.

Ray graduated with a journalism degree from Kennesaw State College in Georgia.