Longtime ACU trustee Ray Victor Hansen (’53), 91, died Oct. 29, 2023, in College Station, Texas.
A funeral service took place there today. A burial service is scheduled for Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. at Abilene’s Texas State Veterans Cemetery (7457 W. Lake Road, Abilene, Texas 79601).
He was born March 5, 1932, in Stamford, Texas, played on ACU’s undefeated 1950 football team and earned a bachelor’s degree in education. He also studied toward a master’s degree in management from the University of Virginia. He served two years of active duty with the U.S. military during the Korean conflict and three years in active reserve.
Hansen wed ACU classmate Nancy Waters (’53) on Jan. 23, 1954, and they were married 62 years when she died in 2016 at age 85. The couple are namesakes of the Nancy and Ray Hansen Reading Commons in ACU’s Brown Library.
He retired after 39 years of management roles with ExxonMobil, and then worked with the family owned businesses of Tiger Holdings and Desperado Distributing Company, and also served as a consultant with EDS. He was a trustee of the university from 1976-2008, named ACU’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 1992 and inducted in 2000 to its Sports Hall of Fame. When he retired, Exxon distributors established the Ray V. and Nancy Hansen Endowed Scholarship Fund at Abilene Christian.
Hansen served as an elder or deacon of congregations in several of the more than three dozen cities in which he and Nancy lived during his ExxonMobil career.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Sam Westergaard Hansen and Birtie (Drury) Hansen; his first wife, Nancy; brothers Henry Hansen and Charles “Woody” Hansen; and a sister, Delarece Hansen Cooper.
Among survivors are Ricki Henry-Hansen, his wife of six years; children and spouses Kathy (Hansen ’77) and J. Lee Askins (’77), Tim Hansen (’80) and Ted Hansen (’81); nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
— Ron Hadfield
Nov. 2, 2023