Raymond Urbaniak

Hurricane, Utah - Raymond Urbaniak, age 79 passed away July 24, 2024. He was born November 14, 1944 in Ypsilanti, Michigan to Raymond C. Urbaniak and Lorraine Secord Urbaniak. He was married to his second wife, Enilse Sehuanes-Urbaniak in 1987 while living in Delray Beach, Florida.

Ray grew up in Michigan with his parents and his sister, Janice (Long), who preceded him in death last year. Ray attended Michigan State University where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Packaging Engineering in 1967. Ray had a very methodical mind for engineering and design. He received patents and awards for his designs, and published packaging articles in trade journals. His early career took him to San Diego, California, where he met his first wife, Joan Barth, and soon moved for a few years to Australia where they married and had their only son, Geoffrey Chad Urbaniak. They relocated back to the U.S.A. where he worked for Corning Glassworks in Corning, New York, and later to South Florida where he worked as Senior Packaging Systems Engineer for Baxter pharmaceuticals from 1976-1989.

He met Enilse in 1986, marrying her six months later. He began a new phase of his life, which became his love and creative outlet: building pottery inspired by the techniques of the Santa Clara Indian potters of New Mexico. While he continued packaging consulting for years to follow, he also embarked on a new art venture with Enilse (a talented artist in her own right), running their own business called, Natural Frequency, Inc. The couple made customized, aromatherapy miniature pottery jewelry which they sold at multiple Native American and art fairs across the country and for which they won multiple awards.

They eventually moved to Crestone, CO where Ray followed his interests in amateur archeology, investigating pueblos sites, pottery shards, and arrow heads left behind by the ancients who traveled through the area. The couple later decided to move to Hurricane, UT in 2001. In the years to follow, Ray devoted much of his time to research and documentation of pictograph and petroglyph sites of Southern Utah and the Northern Corridor of Arizona. He has made a unique contribution with his "thinking outside the box" approach, publishing books about his theories and over 80 articles in the Pleistocene Coalition News.

Ray loved contemplating Zen and Tibetan Buddhism. He also regularly enjoyed science fiction, hiking and picnics in nature, and sharing these interests with his friends and family, including their dog, Bogie. Most of his adult life, he methodically kept journals of deep spiritual insights, tucking away cards from family and travel mementoes in between the pages.

Ray is survived by Enilse and Bogie, who continue to reside in Hurricane, UT; his son Geoffrey Chad Urbaniak and his wife, Christine Adams Urbaniak; and their son (Ray's grandson), Owen Brantley Urbaniak, of Arden, NC.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks those who knew and cared for Ray to pay tribute to his memory by mindfully spending time in nature and working to respect and preserve all Native Sacred Rock Art. Learn more about his work and writings at: naturalfrequency.net/blog/

Arrangements were made under the direction of Spilsbury Mortuary, 110 S. Bluff Street, St George, Utah, (435)673-2454. SpilsburyMortuary.com