E. Ray Lichty, a retired CSX executive who began a 40-year career on the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, died of kidney failure Nov. 10 at Stella Maris Hospice. The Cockeysville resident was 88.

Born Elvin Ray Lichty in Akron, Ohio, and raised in nearby Stow, he was the son of Dr. Joy “J.G.” Lichty, a Goodyear chemist, and his wife, Edna Grove.

He met his future wife, Judith “Judy” Franklin in the first grade. They married in 1957.

“We really had a lifetime together,” she said. “He was high school class president and I was the secretary.”

As an Ohio State University electrical engineering student in 1955, he took a summer job on the B&O as a bridge tender outside Cleveland. He became fascinated by the railroad, switched to Kent State University and became a transportation major.

He a

See Full Page