Raymon B. Fogg, Sr., BSCE ’53, HON ’14

Raymon B. Fogg Sr., BSCE '53, HON ’14, is president and CEO of Ray Fogg Building Methods, Inc., an engineering, contracting and development firm in Cleveland that he founded in 1959. In the past 58 years, the company has constructed more than 3,700 buildings in northeast Ohio including commercial, industrial, office and recreational properties, plus the development of multiple industrial parks. Ray quickly earned a reputation as an innovator in design and build construction. His techniques in marketing and advanced construction analysis procedures have attained worldwide recognition. He has lectured extensively in Europe and the United States. His lifelong educational and practical background in the construction industry began at age eleven on a heavy construction project with his father, also a civil engineer.

After graduating from high school in Conneaut, Ohio, Ray drove a friend to Athens and "just stayed." As a student at Ohio University, he was a member of the Air Force ROTC and served as president of the OHIO Chapter and the Ohio Student Council of the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers. He was honored as one of four outstanding seniors in his graduating class and was the first Ohio University engineering graduate to have a paper published in The Annual Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He says that, "Ohio University helped me make the transition from learning as an assignment to learning as a quest. OHIO gave me both the methods and the insight to continue my lifelong analytical pursuit of my chosen profession, engineering." He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1953.

Ray used the knowledge he gained at Ohio University to benefit others. In addition to his contributions to his own community, he has helped people in need in Central America and Africa. When he heard of the devastation caused by Hurricane Fifi in Honduras in 1974, he flew his own aircraft to deliver high-protein food. He remained, as an engineer and builder, and taught survivors how to reconstruct their villages. After the 1976 earthquake in Guatemala, he and a volunteer work force he had trained in Honduras, taught Guatemalans how to build their new homes. This resulted in the construction of 35,000 homes. In 1981, he went to Somalia as an advisor to Church World Service in coordination with the United Nations, where he developed programs to solve staff and refugee health problems.

Ray has served on numerous civic boards and organizations in Cleveland, including the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, the National Benevolent Association and the Cleveland Inter Church Council. He has served on the boards of church-related homes and shelters for abused or emotionally disadvantaged children and skilled care retirement facilities for older adults. He is known internationally for his work and has served on the boards of several international relief agencies. He is a member of the OHIO Civil Engineering Advisory Board, and ORITE Board. Emeritus member of the Ohio University Foundation Board. In 1997, he was awarded the Medal of Merit and the Alumnus of the Year by the Ohio University Alumni Association.

Ray resides in Cleveland. He has three children, Linda, Kathleen, and Ray, Jr.