Founder of Abilene Bone and Joint Dies Age 82

J. Graham Bray Jr., an orthopedic surgeon who founded the Abilene Bone and Joint Clinic and is remembered as a true Renaissance Man, has passed away at age 82.

Dr. Bray earned his medical degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Following graduation, Dr. Bray served in the United States Air Force. He entered orthopedic residency at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City and then in 1969 he moved to Abilene, Texas, to join his uncle, Dr. Willis Joe Bray, in private practice.

Dr. Bray would later start the Abilene Bone and Joint Clinic and served for many years as a volunteer team physician for local high school and college football teams.

In 1990, he and his family left Abilene and moved to California where he continued his clinical practice until he retired in 2108. Besides his devotion to medicine, Bray was also a nature lover, music lover, sailor, traveler, and a poet. Later in life, he learned to play piano and enjoyed wood carving and practicing bonsai gardening.

Bray was born on March 7, 1938, in Kirksville, Missouri. He graduated from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas. He met his wife-to-be in high school. He went on to graduate from Baylor University before pursuing medicine.

His family said, “Graham was known for compassionately listening to his patients, being highly regarded by his colleagues.”

He leaves behind his wife Dr. Carolyn H. Bray, and his children Caron Bray Jacobs, Kimberly Bray Pruitt and David Bray as well as his stepchildren, Melinda Herring Roberson, and Tim Herring.

He will also be missed his grandchildren Caroline, Bec, Wes, Lillian, Emma, Ivey, Dalton, Rayce, and Amanda and his eight great grandchildren and his miniature poodles Lou and Pepper.

He was predeceased by his parents Dr. John Graham Bray and Rosemary Bray Clapp.