Raymond B. Drake was born on January 16, 1932 in Newark City Hospital.  His family lived in sub-poverty conditions in the top floor of a three-story building in a four-room cold water flat in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark. The family moved to Shephard Avenue when Ray was six.  He attended Maple Avenue School and was the chief of the Safety Patrol boys in the 8th grade.  That was the beginning of his early achieving efforts and leadership! Ray then attended Weequahic HS beginning at the Annex.  He enjoyed Latin with “Doc” Lowenstein as the teacher.  Weequahic High School primarily had a college preparatory curriculum to prepare the students to further their education and enter professional and business fields. There had been only one college graduate among the families and friends of the Drake family.

In his sophomore year, Drake and his friend, Herb Samuels, joined Junior Achievement (JA) at their center on Halsey Street.  Junior Achievement is a worldwide global non-profit youth organization founded in 1919 which works with local businesses, schools and organizations to deliver work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills to inspire students to dream big and reach their potential.

Drake was appointed as a delegate from the Newark center to attend a national convention of Junior Achievement companies (NAJAC) held at Bowling Green University in Ohio.  He was elected Vice President  and further demonstrated his leadership the following summer by organizing the NAJAC convention in Dearborn, Michigan. He subsequently became the National President of Graduate Achievement and chief counsellor to NAJAC.

Drake’s undergraduate time at New Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences continued his quest for leadership among his peers with serving as Vice President of the Freshman and Sophomore classes, President of the Junior Class and President of the Student council.  He was a writer for the student newspaper and eventually Associate Editor.  In 1953, at a convention in Philadelphia of Tau Delta Phi, he was awarded a trophy for Outstanding Consul (President).  In 1954, he was selected to Who’s Who in American Colleges.

Drake attended Rutgers Law School and joined Phi Delta Phi. He served as rushing chairman and later as President.  During his last year at Rutgers, Drake took a course in Practical Legal and Senator Wesley Lance of Hunterdon County offered him a clerkship to commence in the summer of 1957. 

He subsequently enlisted in the 63rd Signal Battalion and spent 6 months at Fort Dix on active duty. Drake was honorably discharged in 1963 with the rank of staff sgt (E6).

Senator Lance was active in his elected position and in his law practice which was divided into the areas of real estate, municipal law, school law and the settlement of estates.  The Senator and his secretary mentored Drake first in the handling of real estate matters including title searching and in the matters of local government.  The Senator was a Republican and encouraged Drake to get active in politics.  Drake was a resident of the Town of Clinton and was elected to the Town Council for a 3-year term.  He served as President of the Board of Health and a chairman of roads.  This experience provided an inside view of the operations of small government.

Volunteering and community service were the avocations of the Drake household.  He had three decades association with the Hunterdon Medical Center(HMC) starting with being a chairman of the Clinton Town Annual Fund Drive for the HMC in 1960 and then the 10 Municipality Coordinator for the HMC fund drive.  He was selected as a trustee of the hospital and then trustee of the Hunterdon Health Services Corporation.  When the HMC Foundaton was organized in 1984, Drake became a trustee and Vice President.  The following year he was selected to be a Director of the Mid-Jersey Health Corporation.

In addition to politics Drake was active in service clubs and organizations.  He was elected as President for the North Hunterdon Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Hunterdon Bar Association.  He served for 8 years on the Board of Consultors of the Real Estate, Probate and Trust section of the NJ Bar Association.  For 12 years, he was a director of the Advisory Board of the First National Bank of Central Jersey.  Drake was an instructor for the Hunterdon County Adult Education Program for Real Estate, Wills and Probate, and Zoning and Planning.  The NJ Planners Association used Drake as an instructor to new members of Boards of Adjustment.

Of the 26 municipalities in Hunterdon County, Drake represented 8 municipal clients as Township attorney or Planning Board or Board of Adjustment. He served for over 20 years, and he represented the Lebanon Township Planning Board for over 30 years.  Drake was the Clinton Township attorney and helped author the first zoning ordinance for the township.  His experiences in these representations honed his skills so that he was recognized as a competent, knowledgeable attorney in the field of zoning and planning law.  Developers, builders, businesses and commercial enterprises employed the legal services of Drake for the matters in the Townships he did not represent.  Applying the accumulated knowledge, Drake was the owner of several major subdivisions he processed.

The county freeholders created the position of attorney for the Hunterdon County Welfare Board when the volume of cases increased in the county and Drake was appointed as the first attorney for the position. He served for over 30 years representing the Board in enforcing support orders, establishing paternity of children born to unmarried applicants for welfare and occasionally fraud cases.

In 1999, the Hunterdon County Bar Association nominated Drake for the Professional Lawyer of the year award and the NJ Commission on Professionalism in Law awarded him the honor.  It is given to those attorneys who have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to professionalism throughout their career in law.  The award was presented at a symposium held in the NJ Law Center in New Brunswick.
Drake was a member of the NJ Bar and had been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.  He was also a member of the NJ Municipal Attorneys Association and the NJ Association of Welfare Board Attorneys. 

Ray’s wife Beverly was a secretary to the Vice President of McGraw-Hill Book company, Albert Mitchell, and a second secretary to Harold McGraw, Jr., at the time of her marriage to Ray.  They had three children, Ray, Jr., Tim and Alison.