Melvin Ray Leach

October 7, 1933 - October 27, 2017

Funeral services for MELVIN RAY LEACH, 84, will be held at 10am Friday, November 3, 2017 at East Gate Baptist Church with Pastor Tim Sparks officiating. Burial with military honors will follow in the Valley View Cemetery. Ray died October 27, 2017 at Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, Colorado. Memorials may be given to Waggin Tails Animal Shelter, Operation Heal Our Patriots or East Gate Baptist Church. Visitation will be Thursday from 3pm to 5pm at the funeral home. Colyer Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements. Condolences may be sent to www.colyerfuneralhome.com. Ray was born October 7, 1933 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania the son of Melvin and Hulda (Ritchey) Leach. He graduated Morrison’s Cove High School in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania and then attended Penn State College. He served three years in the United States Marine Corp. He married Dorothy Bold on June 7, 1958 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and then worked at the M&M Ranch in Loxahatchee, Florida as a show cattle herdsman. He started work for the Florida Department of Agriculture as a livestock marketing specialist in 1962 and was there until 1977. In 1977 he started working for the USDA in the same capacity and retired from there in 1999. They moved to Torrington in 1979. Ray enjoyed mules, horses, leather work, hunting, reading and traveling. He was a member of the East Gate Baptist Church. Ray is survived by his wife Dorothy of Torrington, Wyoming; daughters Rebecca (Edward) Gitthens of Glendo, Wyoming and Melissa (Randy) Caldwell of Edgerton, Missouri; sons Scott (Sheila) Leach of Glendo and Samuel (Emily) Leach of Portland, Oregon; a brother James Leach of Bakers Summit, Pennsylvania; ten grandchildren; and two great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers Clair, Roy, Harold and Joseph; and one sister Edna Kagarise.