Page 93 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2022 - Online Magazine

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getting on the troop carrier, USS in Pampa, Plainview, and Kermit. He
General W.A. Mann, for a five-day sold them in 1990 but continued as a
cruise to San Francisco. I extended relief pharmacist until 2015 when he
my enlistment for one year and, finally retired at age 85. Ray says, “I
after a 30-day leave, I was assigned still miss being a pharmacist and (at 91)
to Stapleton AFB in Denver for can still remember a lot of it.” Mattie
training in Analytical Statistics. I passed away in 1979. He married Joann
was there from August to October Butler who passed away in 2016. Each
1950 and even spent time in marriage lasted 28 years. He is now
Fitzsimons Hospital for kidney married to his long-time friend Ramona
stones.” Lackey.

Estill’s stint in the Pacific was over Raymond is grateful that his
just before the Korean “Conflict” military service and the G.I. Bill led
officially started, but he wasn’t to the fulfillment of his dream of a
finished with his service just career in pharmacy. His service to
yet. “I had married my high school sweetheart, our country and his sixty-year commitment to
Mattie Richardson, on May 8, 1951. My last serving communities with his expertise is not only
assignment was to Stewart AFB in Newburgh, commendable, but praiseworthy.
New York, in the comptroller’s office. I was only Thank you, Mr. Estill.
a buck sergeant, but I oversaw 30 guys. When
the command was moved to Syracuse, I was
promoted to staff sergeant. Three months later, I
was promoted to Tech Sergeant and went all over
defense command, teaching young airmen. I had
a top-secret clearance and handled a lot of ‘for
your eyes only’ documents that I had to burn after
reading.” Sgt. Estill was discharged on November
27, 1952.
After the service, Estill attended Southwestern
State University in Weatherford, Oklahoma and
graduated with a B.S. in Pharmacy in 1956. He
started his career at Grinnell Pharmacy in Hobart,
Oklahoma. “Eli Lilly was cranking up in those
days and coming out with some new drugs. The
old druggist I worked for didn’t trust them. He
used to buy big burlap bags of digitalis leaves
(Foxglove). It was used for heart attacks and
congestive heart failure. He would grind up the
leaves and put them in a capsule. We also had a
barrel of grain alcohol that we would mix with the
digitalis and pour into a 60mm dropper bottle. In
the old days, we compounded one out of every ten
drugs we dispensed. Nowadays, it’s rarely done.”

In 1961, Estill moved his family to Lubbock
where he became a partner in Raff & Hall Drug
Store. In 1984, he opened his own pharmacies

Lubbock Senior Link 93