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Amazing guy. I have a couple of Ray Shero snippets.
My wife spent 10 seasons on the Penguins office staff doing things like corporate sales and tending to the Penguins charitable foundation...most of which was during Ray's tenure. I only met Ray a handful of times but he seemingly never forgot anyone's name. At the 09 Cup win employee party I was at the bar getting a cocktail and someone put their hands on my shoulders from behind and said "hey (my name), glad you could make it". Turned around and it was Ray. Always shocked that he could remember the name of a spouse that he only met a few times at team family events I had attended with my wife. Later that evening my wife and I were just chatting with Ray when his Blackberry went off. (yes, Blackberry was still a thing in 09). He said "excuse me for a moment" and walked away to take the call. About 10 minutes later he came back and apologised for stepping away. That's just the kind of guy he was. We were just having small talk and he apologized for having to take a phone call. Anyway he went on to say it was Billy Guerin and his agent on the phone and that he just resigned him for the next year. I always thought how cool that was that he let us know about a signing before even the media got wind of it.
Another Ray story that my wife likes to tell. My wife and I were at game 7 in Detroit when they won in 09. When the players were done parading the cup around they invited all of the staff down on the ice to celebrate and take photos with the cup. As an employee she didn't turn down that opportunity but unfortunately I had to remain in the stands and watch from afar. Anyway at one point doing all the on ice hugging and high fiving Ray locked eyes on my wife and said to her "congratulations (name)". To which her reply was "No Ray, congratulations to you, I didn't do poop". So again, that's the kind of guy Ray was. Just an amazing humble man who deflected praise to everyone but himself.
When he passed the other day I was in my home office working and my wife walked in with tears in her eyes to tell me that he had suddenly passed away. |
