Raymond Lewis Hunicke

Raymond Lewis Hunicke, 92, beloved husband of 70 years to Barbara Plummer Hunicke, passed away peacefully November 8, 2017 in their home in Roxbury, CT. Both Barbara and Raymond graduated from Cranford High School, NJ, and both served in the Navy during World War II.  They met the evening of  the day Ray left active duty after 4 months at sea.  It was at a bridge party of mutual friends in Cranford, and “sparks flew.”  They married 10 months later.  Raymond was fond of saying how much he loved Barbara, and how they had such a wonderful family and life together.

Raymond graduated from Cornell University in 1946 with a Bachelor’s of Electrical Engineering under the Navy V-12 program. After working several years at Standard Oil in NJ, Raymond and Barbara moved to Cambridge, MA, where Ray completed his MBA at Harvard School of Business in 1950.  After over a decade of engineering and management work including Sprague Electric Co in North Adams, MA, Philco in Lansdale, PA, and General Instruments in Danbury, CT, Raymond was encouraged by a mentor to use his experience to found his own company, Lewis Corporation, in 1965. He had seen a niche in the ultrasonic industry that was not being met, custom-designed ultrasonic cleaning systems. With little money but big ideas, Lewis Corporation was founded and grew over the decades, operating successfully for 34 years.  Lewis employed as many as 80 people at one time and built two industrial buildings in Oxford, CT to house their operations.  Raymond sold the business in 1999 to retire.

Raymond always had an interest for woodworking and construction, and he not only built many pieces of furniture, he built an entire addition on his Roxbury home with the bare minimum of outside help. But his true passion was flying.  He learned to fly J-3 Cubs in 1944 while attending Cornell, and didn’t stop flying until he sold his 5th airplane (a Turbo-charged Mooney) in 2005, hanging up his “wings” at the age of 80.

He is survived by his wife and two of his children, David Sherman Hunicke of Woodbury, CT, and Sara Hunicke Warren of Harvard, MA, as well as his son-in-law Kenneth Allen of Roxbury, CT. He was pre-deceased by his son, Raymond Plummer Hunicke, and his daughter, Nancy Hunicke Allen.  He is also survived by Nancy and Ken’s three children, Trevor Allen of Greenville, SC, Reid Allen of Cambridge, MA, and Nora Allen, of , Boston MA, and Trevor and Katie Allen’s 3 children, Thomas, Patrick and Connor.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the Raymond P. Hunicke Scholarship at the Roxbury Scholarship Foundation, PO Box 106, Roxbury, CT 06783, http://www.roxburyscholarshipfoundation.org/donate.

A memorial service will be held at Roxbury Congregational Church, 24 Church St., Roxbury, CT at 10am on Saturday, November 18, with a reception to follow. Munson Lovetere Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements. 

 Service Information