IN MEMORIAM
“Ray Tye, life-saving philanthropist, dead at 87.” By Bryan Marquard. Boston Globe. March 11, 2010. Ray Tye was one of Boston’s biggest philanthropists, but he didn’t much care for the title, and he was even less interested in drawing public attention to his private donations. The chairman emeritus of United Liquors, who died of cancer in his Cambridge home yesterday at 87, gave away millions, often covering the medical expenses of people described in news stories as unable to afford life-saving care. “He always did this quietly,’’ said his wife, Eileen. “He never wanted his name chiseled into a hospital facade or put on a plaque.’’ And he agreed to be the public face of the Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation, established in his honor by his wife and friends, only because it might prompt others to contribute to the good will he saw as his life’s work.