Raymond LaBounty Puffer

Dr. Raymond LaBounty Puffer, Ph.D., died of natural causes at his home in Victorville, Calif., on March 6, 2025. Born in Tecumseh, Mich., to C. Raymond and Ruth LaBounty Puffer, Ray fondly recalled his childhood along the River Raisin. His love of aviation started early, and on his seventh birthday, his parents gave him the best gift he ever received: a flight in a Piper J-3.

Soon he was building model airplanes and following the careers of Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield, and Bill Bridgeman, eventually earning his pilot’s license and joining the Civil Air Patrol. Ray was also an avid reader who strived to finish a book a week. He got his diploma from Tecumseh High School in 1956, and after graduating from Michigan State University in 1960 with a degree in political science, he pursued his master’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he met his future wife, Kathleen McCulley. Ray and Kathleen were married for more than 60 years.

Ray’s service to his nation began in 1962, when he joined the U.S. Navy as an ensign in the Naval Reserve. He served a three-year tour at sea as a nuclear weapons officer, then qualified as an instructor at the Nuclear Weapons School and became a member of the Defense Atomic Support Agency Nuclear Emergency Team, responding to incidents anywhere on the globe.

After earning a Ph.D. in history at the University of New Mexico, Ray, now Dr. Puffer, entered the U.S. Air Force’s history program in 1977. In 1981, Dr. Puffer opened the History Office at the AF Ballistic Missile Office at Norton AFB, Calif., becoming chief historian of a five-person agency. While serving at Norton, he researched and recorded the development of the M-X (Peacekeeper) Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and created the BMO Missile Heritage Park. In his spare time, he wrote hundreds of military history book review blurbs for Library Journal. (He was also a contributing editor for 15 children’s books about military vehicles and service members.)

When Air Force research and development of long-range missile systems began to shrink following the end of the Cold War, Dr. Puffer became a staff historian at Edwards AFB’s Flight Test Center, which he called “the most interesting job in the entire Air Force.” His love of flight was richly rewarded at Edwards, where he witnessed Space Shuttle landings, rode along in a C-135 tanker as it refueled an SR 71, and got to know his childhood heroes like Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson. An authority on the history of the base, he responded to more than 800 requests for information each year and was frequently interviewed for publications such as Smithsonian Magazine and appeared as an on-camera commentator for documentaries on the history of flight test and research activities at Edwards, including The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club and the History Channel’s Modern Marvels. In 2007, the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Flight Test Center congratulated Dr. Raymond Puffer on 30 years of dedicated federal service.

Retirement allowed Ray to explore other interests, such as community theater, improv comedy, and performing as Simon Cluckwell in the Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California. He was a Eucharastic Lay Minister and Reader at Trinity Episcopal Church in Redlands, Calif., and subsequently at St. Hilary’s Church, Hesperia, Calif. Ray also volunteered for the Chaplain’s Service at first the Victor Valley Community Hospital in Victorville and then St. Mary Medical Center, Apple Valley, Calif.

Ray’s real passion was oil painting, and while living in New Mexico, he first concentrated on desert scenes and then began recording downtown scenes from his hometown, Tecumseh, Mich. During the pandemic, Ray discovered new directions for his paintings, giving some of them a surreal touch.

Ray is survived by his wife, Kathleen; children Faith Tinnin and Ted Puffer; grandchildren Cypress and Cliff Onarheim-Tinnin; his sister, Miriam Puffer Sybrandy; and numerous cousins. Online, he stayed in touch with a large community of friends locally and from Michigan.

A Celebration of the Life of Raymond LaBounty Puffer will be held Saturday, May 10, 2025, 10 a.m. at St. Hilary’s Episcopal Church, 11305 Hesperia Rd., Hesperia, CA, 92340, 760.244.6444. Reception in the Church House immediately following. In remembrance of Ray’s life, the family asks that any charitable donations be made to Artists of the High Desert, 9648 9th Ave., Suite 8, Hesperia, CA, 92345, 442.353.4258.