Employee Spotlight: Ray Sawdon

Meet Ray Sawdon, service worker at the city’s Beal Memorial Cemetery. Ray has worked at the cemetery for the last 15 years. He is part of a small staff of three that is responsible for upkeep and maintenance of the grounds (40 acres), selling/managing plots and mausoleum space, day-to-day customer service, and assisting in burial services. If you’ve driven by the cemetery lately, you’ll see Ray’s handy work.

The facility is beautiful, as it should be. He takes a lot of pride in mowing and weed eating around the monuments, something done on a weekly basis in the spring and summer. He also enjoys helping people in need of the cemetery’s services. Ray speaks highly of the city as his employer saying, “I like the people I work with. Plus, the benefits are great, and the pay is good!” It must be a pretty good place to work considering he has made it 15 years!

Ray moved around as a young boy because of his father’s various Air Force deployments until his family settled in Fort Walton Beach. He considers FWB his hometown, and he graduated from Choctawhatchee High School. Ray is a U.S. Army and Army Reserve veteran, having lived in Germany and Fort Knox before settling back down in FWB. His wife, Trisha, teaches language arts at Choctawhatchee High School. Between the two of them they have raised seven children. Ray and Trisha live in Ray’s family home in town. Getting to know Ray Sawdon:

• Hobbies? Camping (Blackwater River State Park) and metal detecting at the beaches and parks.
• Favorite place to visit? Blue Ridge Mountains
• Who do you admire the most? “My wife, Trisha. She’s a cancer survivor, and she’s my hero.”
• If you could learn anything, what would it be? Sign Language
• If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be? “Elon Musk. I think I could put a dent in world hunger with all of that money.”
• Something about yourself that would surprise others. “I’ve played Santa Claus in the Christmas Parade for the last two years!”

September 11, 2021