Raymond Estrada, Jr. died Feb. 3, 2023 in Santa Barbara after a short illness. He was 70.

Ray was born on Dec. 21, 1952 to Melinda (Morentin) Byrd and Ray Estrada, Sr. in Oceanside, California, the third of four children. He grew up in Santa Ana, California, apart for three years when his family lived in Jacksonville, Florida, when his father was stationed there in the early 1960s with the United States Marine Corps. 

Estrada graduated from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana and California State University, Fullerton, where he served as fall 1973 executive editor of Daily Titan and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Following his university graduation, he worked for various print publications in Southern California before taking assignments in several countries in Central America. Ray’s reporting was aired on CBS, NPR and BBC radio stations, and he would return for a period in the 1980s.

In Southern California, he worked for several newspapers including the Daily Pilot in Orange County and the Daily Breeze in Torrance before moving with his then-wife to Santa Barbara in 1988 and working for the Santa Barbara News-Press until 1993 at the business and local news desks, including time as an automotive writer with a syndicated column.

Ray would work at other publications in California and Nevada before returning to Santa Barbara in 2007, where he worked as an editor, writer and a member of various clubs and organizations in his retirement.

He was an avid music fan, loved playing guitar, the beach and the city of Santa Barbara. Yet Ray loved journalism the most.

Ray is survived by one son Zac, a journalist in Los Angeles. He is also survived by one sister Daria, and two brothers Daniel and Steven.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. Donations in his memory can be made to CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California, the Daily Titan newspaper and to Columbia Journalism Review.