William Elrod Bray, teacher, artist, writer, and inventive creator of possibilities for the next generation, peacefully passed from this life to the next in Athens, Georgia at 12:30 am on July 26th. Known to many in Dalton as "Roddy," and to many more in Atlanta, Athens, New Haven, Baltimore and Boston as "Bill," this man had as many nicknames as he did varied chapters in his life. His was a life of purpose, a life of servitude or, as he would often say, a "Mission-Driven Life."

Roddy's mission was simple - to make the world a better place for the next generation. Following the path laid down by his vaunted Colonial ancestor, Dr. Thomas Bray, the founder of the American library system, a pioneer of early American learning and the mentor to the very founder of the State of Georgia, James Oglethorpe, Roddy Bray had a life plan. Roddy's journey hewed closely to that of Dr. Thomas Bray. Never one to dwell on the mundane aspects of life, Roddy pursued his mission with a missionary zeal. His time on Earth was spent on a spiritual quest for the betterment of everyone. His tools were the arts, a love of learning and self-sacrifice that few men can even conceive of, much less dedicate their lives to.

Roddy Bray's educational resume was immense. He graduated from the University of Georgia and went on to Yale Divinity School to earn a Master of Divinity degree in 1963, before later obtaining more advanced degrees from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard and Oxford. After divinity school, Roddy, believing that the traditional ministry was his calling, became the Associate Pastor at University Baptist Church in Baltimore, a town he came to cherish as his spiritual home. Leaving the traditional ministry, Roddy found other, less standard ways to uplift his many charges. Forming an Experimental Film Society, Roddy launched the career of filmmaker John Waters, wrote for The Baltimore Sun, founded a weekly newspaper for the arts there, and marketed numerous rock bands in the 1970's.

And he taught. He taught multiple subjects at multiple universities: Psychology, Religion, History, Art History, Visual Arts, Composition, and more. He was, at heart, a teacher, a teacher who once, during the period of his beloved "Sixties," single-handedly stopped a campus anti-Vietnam War demonstration and its counter-demonstration from escalating into a violent riot. His solution was to hastily arrange a staged debate, so both sides could make their point with no casualties.

While still in high school, Roddy persuaded his father to re-purchase a large tract of land in Calhoun, "The Daffodil Farm." Once he moved back home, Roddy quickly went to work on his life's mission using, as he said "every inch of that land for as long as possible to teach and inspire the next generation." The Daffodil Farm held Drama and Visual Arts programs in the 1980's and artistic and athletic field trips for troubled children from surrounding counties in the 1990's. His program eventually produced musicians, painters, architects, writers, and actors. Roddy founded a nonprofit organization in 1980, the Georgia Fine Arts Academy, that will continue to support the arts and humanities in Georgia into the future.

While in Atlanta, he wrote three books in the next decade, including Your Spiritual Lineage: Researching the Genealogy of Your Soul: Pioneering a New Understanding of the Origins of Personality Development, introducing the world to the completely original field of research of Spiritual Lineaging, figuring out who people were in past lives through odd, inexplicable clues in this life.

In 2006, Roddy moved to Athens, Georgia and co-founded Bilbo Books Publishing along with fellow Dalton native Bowen Craig. Naming their venture after the Hobbit, who also wrote his memoirs, Bilbo Books has produced more than thirty personal and family memoirs, as well as novels, academic texts, poetry books, collections of short stories, and five children's books, including Dalton's own Sims Lambert's Kate's Funny Shoes, a beautifully-illustrated tale of a child with Multiple Sclerosis overcoming childhood bullying and turning her disability into an ability.

Roddy leaves behind a niece, Laura Lynn Swafford of Lawrenceville, and a nephew, James Wellborn "Jim" Bray III of Dalton, as well as several grandnephews and grandnieces. He will also be missed by a large host of devoted former students and mentees now scattered across the globe, all carrying on William Elrod Bray's mission of making this a better world for generations to come.

A family Visitation will take place at First Baptist Church, where Bray was first ordained to the work of the Gospel Ministry in 1960-1, on Saturday, August 7th, 1:00-3:00 o'clock, immediately followed by an intimate graveside interment at West Hill Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please give generously to organizations he loved, causes he undertook, such as his Georgia Fine Arts Academy, the Creative Arts Guild, or any charity that opens new worlds through the arts.