New Middleton High School Gym Officially Opens

Middleton High School officially opened their new gymnasium on December 17 as a contributor to the effort came to Middleton for the occasion.
Appearing and speaking to the near 400 people who attended was Hardeman County native and 1958 graduate of Middleton High School Randy Ray, who donated $250,000 to the project.
In April, Ray visited Middleton High School and shared his life experience with students.
When he noted in his speech at Middleton High School on April 18 that he hadn’t been back to Middleton High School since he graduated, he also remembered he was told this was as far as he’d ever get.
“They said, ‘You can’t go to college, you’re going to be a farmer.’ But I did go,” he said. “I found out if I joined the army, they would pay for it. My Dad had to come down to sign for me to go. He signed with an ‘X’.”
After being educated on the GI Bill, which included time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ray’s journey went from Honeywell International, writing software, to his own company where he managed to get the contract of a lifetime in 1977: contract work on the Space Shuttle project for NASA.
He at a young age learned what it is like to do without and from that came a passion for helping kids.
“We lived about 15 places in Hardeman County. None of them had electricity. We know what it is like to be hungry and have no place to sleep,” he said.
His brother Winfred, a Hardeman County resident and successful businessman as well, said he was inspired by the hardships of childhood too.
He never forgot those experiences, and has used it to give back to the worldwide community.
The next 40 plus years have seen him build schools and hospitals in all over the world and his company Jeunesse Global, headquartered in Orlando, FL, has offices in 141 countries and has more than 600,000 sales people.