Raymond L. Cournoyer

Raymond Leo Cournoyer passed away peacefully on July 20th, 2024, surrounded by his loving children, Joanne, Donna, Ray Jr., and Tracy.  He was born on April 6, 1942, and grew up in Manville, RI.  He lived and greatly enjoyed his later years on his peaceful property in Harrisville, RI along the Tarkiln River.  He was pre-deceased by his parents, Theodore L. Cournoyer and Therese S. (nee Raymond) Cournoyer of Manville.

He attended St. Joseph’s High School and then followed with 1-1/2 years of study at St. Joseph’s College Prep & Seminary, both in Bucksport, Maine.  After school, he enlisted and served honorably in the Army National Guard.

He was an auto-body repairman by trade.  He owned and operated Cournoyer’s Auto Body in Manville for many years and then worked at Miller’s Auto Body in Cumberland, RI until his retirement.  He was a former member of Manville Sportsman Club.  He was a faithful Roman Catholic, devoted to daily Mass and the Rosary.  He was an active parishioner at Our Lady of Good Help in Burrillville, RI, where he served as a bell-ringer, assisted with facilities maintenance, participated in many parish activities, and worked in the kitchen for Lenten Fish-n-Chip Fridays.

Ray loved to make things and he was a true craftsperson in every sense of the word.   Self-taught, he was creative, artistically talented, and highly skilled in many ways.  He was a woodworker, a metalworker, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a lumberjack, a gardener, and a mechanic, just to name a few.   And he just loved to build things.   The culmination of his skills might be best represented, when in 2017 at 75 years old, he decided to design and build a covered bridge over the river in his yard.  It spans 30 feet across the river, rises 20 feet above the water, and has beauty and function that would make both an artist and structural engineer pause and say….’wow, would you look at that.’

Another of his great passions was food and sharing it with others.  Other than being outdoors, ‘Daddio’ may have been most happy at his dinner table, surrounded by his family and enjoying a feast that he prepared for everyone.  A succulent roast or a turkey with all the fixings, homemade grinders, mounds of shrimp cocktail, steaming sweet corn loaded with butter and salt, steamers, homemade soups, and of course his specialty, baked beans – made from scratch and cooked in a bean pot.  And if he wasn’t eating food, he was talking about food.  We heard the repeated, wide-eyed stories of eating with friends or family at the Venus de Milo, ‘slaw’ burgers at the Milk Can, wieners (‘all the way’), Mezza Luna pizza, fish-n-chips at Ye Olde English, and his mother’s meat pies.

He loved to laugh and in his later years, enjoyed sitting outside in his yard with one of his precious few close friends, sipping a beer or two, chatting and story-telling the afternoon away in the shade along the riverbank, and maybe occasionally glancing over at the bridge he built with deep satisfaction.

His smile, laugh, sense of humor, work ethic, steadfast reliability, trustworthiness, generosity, and piercing blue eyes will be sorely missed. 

His funeral will be held Thursday, July 25, 2024, at 9:00 AM from the Fournier and Fournier Funeral Home, 463 South Main St. Woonsocket, with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 AM at Our Lady of Good Help Church, 1063 Old Victory Hgwy, Mapleville, RI. Burial will follow in St. James Cemetery in Manville, RI. Visiting hours are Wednesday, July 24. 2023 from 5-7 PM. Please visit www.fournierandfournier.com for guestbook and directions.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to:

Little Sisters of the Poor – Jeanne Jugan Residence (https://www.littlesistersofthepoorpawtucket.org/our-home/), or

Potter League for Animals (https://potterleague.org)

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