Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame Class of 2017 named
One Washakie County cowboy among 45 inductees
Share
Tweet
CASPER — The Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame (WCHF) Board of Directors conducted annual business meetings May 20-21 in Casper and selected the Class of 2017 WCHF honorees
The process of selection was begun by committees in 10 geographic regions across the state soon after nominations closed. The WCHF sends each nomination to the county from which it was submitted, where regional honorees are chosen by their respective committees. Nominees ranked at the top in each county are again reviewed during the state board meeting.
The 2017 WCHF Induction Ceremony and festivities are scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 23 and Sunday, Sept. 24 in Casper.
Forty-five men and two women comprise WCHOF’s Class of 2017 honorees and they include posthumously Ray Duane Rice of Washakie County.
Ray Rice, longtime Ten Sleep resident, passed away June 5, 1996, at the age of 52, according to the obituary in the Northern Wyoming Daily News.
He was born on July 22, 1943, in Worland, a son of Vernon and Doris (Matthews) Rice.
He was raised in Ten Sleep, and attended elementary and high school there graduating in 1961. He then attended Utah State University in Logan, where he graduated in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry. He returned to the family ranch in the Brokenback area.
Mr. Rice was active in ranching related activities around the state, serving with the Soil Conservation District board, Southside Paintrock Cattle Association, Big Horn Forest Permittees Association, Washakie County Predator Control Board, and the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association. He was a member of the Worland Elks Lodge, the Big Horn Sno-Goers, and was a stockholder in the Ten Sleep Rodeo Association.
Other local cowboys to be inducted in September are Carl Obe Dockery and Ernest Nathan “Nate” Brown of Hot Springs County; Don “Reckless Red” Bell and Jack Graves of Big Horn County and Hugh “Hughie” Maller; Edward “Eddie” Dvarishkis and Cecil Vaughn McMillin, all of Park County.
Other honorees, listed by their geographic region and county, are:
Region 1: CAMPBELL – Harold Scott and Robert “Bob” Isenberger CROOK – Alden C. Robinson and Donald “Dee” Clark WESTON – Arthur Leslie “Art” Montgomery and Joseph Stephen “Joe” Fordyce
Region 2: GOSHEN – Richard T. “Bucky” Barnett and Joe W. “JW” Buckhaults NIOBRARA – George Donald “Powder River” Thompson; William “Bill” Greer and Murray Butler PLATTE – Jimmy and Gloria Grieve.
Region 3: ALBANY – Frank “Judge” Lilley and James “Jim” Atkinson LARAMIE – Charles Dunning and Billy Wilkinson.
Region 4: NATRONA – Benjamin “Ben” Roberts and James Henry “Hank” Miles CONVERSE – William Shaw “Bill” Gray and James Oscar “Jim” Middleton.
Region 5: JOHNSON – Church Hill Firnekas and Wes Taylor SHERIDAN – Floyd “Hawk” Shaffer and Robert L. “Bob” Snyder.
Region 7: CARBON – Louis D. “Louie” Boles and Albert D. “Bert” Johnson SWEETWATER – Percy Edwards and Abner Luman.
Region 8: FREMONT – John G. “Jack” Corbett and George Earl “Rasty” Givens.
Region 9: UINTA – Lewis “Junior” Martin; Howard Paul “Red” Peterson and J. William “Bill” Martin LINCOLN – Walter C. “Buster” McIlvain.
Region 10: SUBLETTE – Otto Arthur Herman Miller and Robert “Bob” Lozier TETON – Dail Knori and James “Bill” Beard.
