POUGHKEEPSIE – Raymond Charles Delio, US Army Retired, 83, passed peacefully on Tuesday, October 9, 2018 at Vassar Brothers Hospital. Ray was born in Queens, New York on May 11, 1935 to parents Ernesto and Maria Delio and sister Marie Delio Palmer. His parents were entrepreneurs; his father operated Delio Tea & Coffee in NYC, while his mother operated both a private couture seamstress business and the family’s rental properties.
PFC Delio joined the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Division, being deployed to South Korea and ending his tour of duty with an honorable discharge on September 10, 1955. Ray attended P.S. #81, and after discovering a love of engineering, transferred to and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1952, with a specialty in Structural Engineering. Ray then went on to receive his B.S. in 1961 for Mechanical Engineering and Machine Design, with Honors, in a joint program between the City College of New York and Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, which later became part of New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering. He was an honorary member of Pi Tau Sigma, maintained membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of Professionals and Scientists, and for some time was the Secretary for the American Foundrymens’ Society. Ray loved electronics, especially circuit theory, and had lifelong dreams of obtaining a PhD in Electrical Engineering.
Ray joined IBM in 1961 as a Mechanical Engineer, and by 1964 was promoted to Sr. Engineer. In 1965 Ray was promoted to Department Manager for the Mask Engineering Group and held a variety of both technical and managerial assignments across various foundries and research centers around the world. Ray worked at facilities in Armonk, Burlington, Fishkill, Honolulu, Poughkeepsie, San Jose, and Yorktown Heights, often in the then Components Division. A prolific technical innovator in the early days of germanium-based semiconductor manufacturing technology, his work at IBM contributed to patents that IBM held on various subjects. He retired from IBM in 1992 after 31 years of dedicated service.
An avid computer enthusiast, Ray had a passion for technology. He was a founding member and first SysOp for an early IBM community bulletin board system – The MicroChip BBS. This system was early online community prototype for IBM employees and later the public. It went online in 1985, nearly six years before any other modern online communities like AOL. Open-source operating systems remained his interest until his final months. His other hobbies included restoring old sports cars, traveling, and construction, and various entrepreneurial ventures.
Ray is preceded by his wife, Margaret Louise Delio (Stemwede) of Poughkeepsie, who passed September 29, 2014. He is survived by his daughter, Victoria Benn, her husband Richard Benn of Dover, New Hampshire, grandson Adam R. Benn and wife Melanie Benn, and great-grand children Ethan, Abagail, and Harper Benn of Hillsboro, New Hampshire; grandson Matthew P. Benn and wife Jody Lynn Benn and great-grandchildren Colby and Keegan Benn of Lee, New Hampshire; and grandson Eric Benn of Dover, New Hampshire; his son, David E. Delio and wife Christine and grandaughters Jacqueline and Emily Delio of Poughkeepsie, NY; his son Robert Delio and wife Martha of Wappingers Falls, New York, and his son Raymond Palmer “RP” Delio of Bethel, CT.
Services will be held on Sunday, October 28 from 1-3pm at the Delehanty Funeral Home, 64 E. Main St., Wappingers Falls, NY 12590. To send a condolence or for directions, visit www.delehantyfuneral.com

To send flowers to the family of Raymond C. Delio, please visit our Heartfelt Sympathies Store.