Rolland Ray Gerber was born in the family home two miles north of Driftwood, Oklahoma on February 7, 1925. He passed away on February 26, 2006 at the Veterans Hospital in Oklahoma City at eighty-one years of age.

He graduated from the Driftwood High School in 1942. He was a veteran of WW2 and served in the Navy Construction Battalion and airstrips in the Aleutian Islands and Okinawa.

After his discharge in 1945, he was a farmer and cattleman. Graduating from the Missouri Auction School in Kansas City in 1956, he became an auctioneer and a cattle buyer at weekly auctions in NW Oklahoma and Southern Kansas. For a while, he had so many auctions that he was flying to them and was known as the "Airborne auctioneer".

Moving to Watonga in 1965, he operated the Watonga Livestock Auction. He also built and ran the Plant Place and a sprinkler system installation company in Watonga. He was an avid fisherman.

Ray married Jonnie Martin in 1943. She passed away in 1973. He then married Cleo Cowan in 1975. Three brothers, one sister, two sons, and two stepchildren survive him as well as ten grandkids and eleven great grandkids. His numerous friends and family will miss him.

Funeral services for Ray Gerber will be Wednesday, March 1, at 10:00 am at the Christian Church in Watonga with Rev. David Johnson officiating. Burial will follow later in the afternoon at 2:00 pm at the Cherokee Cemetery in charge of arrangements.