Ray Carlsen, 86, resident of Naperville, Illinois, died on June 8, 2025, at Johnson Health Care Center at Windsor Park, Carol Stream, Illinois.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Norman and Thelma (Berg) Carlsen on Sept. 18, 1938. Ray was a lifelong newspaper man with his career starting at the Wheaton College Record, continuing while he was a Second Lieutenant in the Army as the assistant information officer and editor of The Fort Lee Traveler; followed by Ray and Blaze owning and operating multiple weekly newspapers in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Ray spent the last 23 years of his journalism career as executive director of Inland Press Association in suburban Chicago.
