A Kansas native, CORT District General Manager Ray Randall played baseball at a local junior college right after graduating from Kansas City’s Piper High School in 1981. Unfortunately, Ray’s parents didn’t have the money for him to stay in college, so Ray decided to join the U.S. Army to benefit from the GI Bill.
Joining the Army wasn’t necessarily a tough decision for Ray. His father, and hero, served in the Army during WWII and Ray loved sitting down with his dad and listening to his stories from his time spent in the military.
Ray spent two years in Ft. Hood, Texas, where he was a supply sergeant. In this role, Ray was primarily responsible for the general upkeep and maintenance of all Army supplies and equipment. This entailed receiving, inspecting, managing of inventory, loading/unloading of supplies, storage and delivering supplies and equipment.
Shortly after arriving at Ft. Hood, Ray witnessed two high-ranking officials get fired. He was a young specialist at the time, but he was put in charge of finding $100 million out of $300 million in missing items. Within 6 months of being told he needed to “fix the problem,” he reconciled the books and found the products. Based on his performance, Ray received an Army Commendation Medal, which helped propel him to the rank of Sergeant.
After Ft. Hood, Ray spent three years in Frankfurt, Germany, where his first son was born. During his time in Germany, Ray took advantage of being in Europe and toured several countries including Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy and Spain, where he visited wineries and enjoyed the local sangria.
After serving in the Army, Ray joined CORT in September 1987 as a driver. He was a driver for CORT for about a year, before moving up through the ranks of management and eventually to the district general manager, which he holds today. As a coach’s son growing up, leadership was instilled in him at a very young age. “I carried the leadership role through my athletic activities, then my military service and finally with my role at CORT,” said Ray. “As a very competitive individual, I will do anything to win and be successful.”
Today, Ray credits social media for allowing him to maintain his friendships with his fellow Army veterans. Enjoying quite a bit of beer while stationed in Germany, his Army buddies appropriately named their Facebook group – Euro Drunks.
Thank you for your service, Ray!
