Ray Mayo was someone whose roots ran deep.
He was the son of farmers — a mother and father who worked hard and taught their son to do the same.
Salt of the earth. That’s what they called them.
It is a sign of respect — a term that carries with it all of the same qualities that their son valued, emulated and fought to preserve.
Mayo was a local boy, who later left home to work in the Newport News shipyards, where he learned to be a machinist.
His parents taught him honesty, integrity and humility — and that is how he lived his life. He had a deep faith and lived those principles every day, too.
Mayo understood hard work and loved his country and his community, which he served for decades, most recently as the chairman of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.
He lived a life of accomplishment and respect. There are all sorts of achievements and honors that will be a part of future tributes written about him.
You will hear about his business acumen and his success and his service to the community and the awards he has received because of it.
But we thought the best place to start to honor him and to help mourn his loss was to start where it all began — those values his parents taught him and how he applied them throughout his life.
Ray Mayo was a gentleman and a man of honor.
You knew where you stood when you talked to him — and you knew where he stood, too.
Political winds did not sway him. It was about those values — the ones he learned from his mom and dad — and that faith that he lived not just by reciting psalms and Bible verses, but through service and good words and deeds.
When he sat at his seat at the commissioners’ table and wielded the chairman’s gavel, it was always about what was best for the county he loved.
He was not afraid to tell it like it was — even if some of his fellow Republicans might not agree. What was best for his constituents and his county, that is what mattered.
If there was a better idea across the aisle, he would listen and consider it. And he was not afraid to change his mind either.
And that is what being a leader, a true leader, really requires.
Having integrity means being able to tell someone you respect that they are not living up to the standards set by their party’s principles. He did that, too.
Mayo’s loss is massive. He brought common sense, accountability and a businessman’s eye for dollars and cents to one of Wayne County’s most important boards. He watched over the county that raised him and the money of the taxpayers who support it.
It went back to that same start, the same journey that took him from a farm in Wayne County to a manufacturing business of his own.
Because, when you think about it, what made Ray Mayo so great, someone to be admired, is that he lived those values, those lessons, that calling.
Ray Mayo achieved much, but he never forgot where he came from, no matter how successful he became.
He was salt of the earth all of his life.
And there could be no greater compliment for a man who lived his life in faith, with honor and in service to others.
Our thoughts are with the Mayo family — and his fellow commissioners — as they prepare to navigate the future without him.
He will be missed.
