Ruth Elizabeth "Bunny" Kellogg
Ruth "Bunny" Elizabeth Kellogg was born November 21, 1931, in Painsville, Ohio, daughter of Ethel Wright and William J. Kellogg.
Bunny and her family moved a lot, eventually moving from Pittsburgh, PA to Pleasant Valley, NY, living with Grandma & Grandpa Wright (progenitors of our Generation 1 Wrights of Hammondsport) for awhile, moving to Bath, NY when she was 12. After graduation from Haverling High School, she studied nursing at Buffalo General Hospital of Nursing.
After graduating from her nursing studies, she stayed and worked at Buffalo General Hospital, eventually becoming head of ER. Mutual friends arranged a blind date with George Raftis, a graduate of NY State Maritime Academy. George's father was from Athens, Greece (Constantinus Raftopoulos) and mother was from Ireland (Louisa Sheeran). During WW II, George had served in the Maritime Service. With unanimous approval from the "Kirkums" (old joke name for the Wright family) at the Keuka Lake cottage in the summer of 1958, Bunny and George became engaged. Bun and George had a Holiday Wedding in Hammondsport on December 27, 1958.
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Above are some wonderful family photos, the ones on top while we still had George. The Raftis family gets together as often as possible, and every year, we look forward to a family gathering photo. The one above on the left is the latest one, which includes the grandchildren. The one above on the right are Dave and Ann Kubat, then Bunny, and Cindy and Mike Raftis.
George worked for "Gulf Oil" as Chief Enginer on turbo-electric tankers. He left there to work for Combustion Engineering in NYC. The couple raised their 3 children in Hillsdale, NJ and Simsbury, CT. Bunny didn't return to the field of nursing until 15 years later. They retired in 1989, moving to Lake Lure, NC, and have now moved to Atlanta, GA to be closer to 2 of their children and their families. George had his second bypass operation in 1999, and is still going strong with his many projects and hobbies. He designed and built a 10' water wheel for a friend in 2000, forcing his pottery to take a temporary back seat. Bunny enjoys gardening, "talking" with friends and family on the computer, music and, of course, family get-togethers. George has always been inventive and good at designing, even sending his ideas to government agencies on reinforcing airplane cockpit doors, after the events of 9/ll. Sadly, we lost George on February 16th, 2010.
Bunny is currently living in a super retirement place in a perfect location, 20 minutes from Ann and Dave Kubat and 20 minutes also from Michael and Cindy in Georgia. You can reach Bunny at bungeo@comcast.net.
Ann Maureen (Raftis) Kubat was born on December 24, 1964. She graduated from Johnson & Wales University with a BS degree in hospitality management. She married David Kubat on April 18, 1998. Dave graduated from Kennesaw State University. He helped open and run Restaurant Solutions, Inc. in Atlanta, supplying equipment and small wares to the restaurant industry.
Today, they still live in the Atlanta area and they started and run a real estate company called Maximum One. They have several business projects in Alabama which include a wedding venue (The Magnolia House on Weiss Lake) and a vacation rental home (YourBigLakeHouse.com).
They also lead a prayer group for couples in their home and Dave does the same for business professionals.
Joshua Raftis Kubat was born on March 17, 2001. Josh is starting his entrepreneurial career with a cleaning service and also helps his parents with their properties.
Their daughter, Sarah Raftis Kubat was born October 27, 2003. She is in high school and enjoys singing and writing worship songs.
You can reach them at akubat@comcast.net.
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At the right is an early picture of George, whom we lost on February 16th, 2010.
Kathleen Louise (Raftis) Henry was born on December 7, 1961. She was always "tumbling", a very talented gymnast. I remember her teaching my very young daughter gymnastics moves at one of the family gettogethers at Aunt Bea's in Bath in the late 70's. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Connecticut. She practiced physical therapy at Beth Israel Hospital for 5 years and was supervisor at the Outpatient Orthopedic Dept. She began a private practise, specializing in treatment of neck, back and TMJ dysfunction. After 14 years, she sold her practise "Raftis Physical Therapy Associates." She enjoys spending more time at home while seeing patients in her home office.
She married Mark Henry on May 23, 1998, in Lake Lure, NC. Mark is originally from Lancaster, PA, and graduated from Slippery Rock College. He is a pilot with American Airlines (for 27 years). In his spare time he enjoys golf and tennis.
Elizabeth was born 6/6/1999, second daughter Grace followed on 7/4/2001, and John was born 7/18/2004.
Elizabeth is a 20-year-old junior at the University of New Hampshire, working toward her masters in speech pathology. She sings with an Acapella group at UNH, is part of Chi Omega sorority, and is involved in the Miss NH scholarship organization where she is able to serve the community, sing for performances, and earn college scholarship money.
Grace is an 16-year old freshman at the University of New Hampshire and has been accepted into the Occupational Therapy Program. She ran track and cross country in high school, and participated in musical theater. Her favorite role was as Sandy in Grease. She loves to sing and competed with the Miss NH organization.
John is a 15-year-old high school freshman who enjoys tennis, swimming, basketball and golf. He plays piano and saxophone and loved playing sax with the Middle School Jazz Band at Disney in the Spring of 2019.
They currently live in Durham, NH. You can reach them at khenrypt@comcast.net.
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Copyright 2008-2023 by Marilyn K. (Wright) Dayton
maredayt@yahoo.com
This page was last updated 5/3/2022..
Michael Steven Raftis was born on October 29, 1959. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, his P.E. (Professional Engineer's License) and his partial Masters at the University of Tennessee. He married Cindy Boyd on May 21, 1988. Cindy had received a Business Degree from Florida Junior College in Jacksonville, FL. Mike changed companies in 2019, selling out his previous company ownership, and is now with Industrial Accessories Company (IAC) International. He is still in the same industry, providing engineered and constructed Air Pollution Control equipment for industrial plants. He is Director of Systems Sales and is responsible for technical design and sales of the systems. Mike enjoys staying active with golf, racquetball, and the gym, as well as trading stocks on the side. He takes advantage of any chance to travel with Cindy. Cindy still runs the "Home Operations". She achieved getting her real estate license and works part time still dabbling in real estate but spends much of her time playing tennis, golf and cards with the girls.
Amanda Marie was born on 10/25/1991. Michelle Allison was born on 7/28/1993, and Matthew Alexander on 10/26/1997. As you can see by the photo below, they do enjoy a lot of the same interests together. Amanda and her husband Robby Campbell got married on October 6, 2018 in north Georgia. A few months later in May, they decided to move to Denver, Colorado to be near the mountains and try something new. Robby landed a contract job in marketing as a project manager for Spectrum Enterprises, and is also in the process of looking at a couple of full-time positions as a marketing manager, now that they have settled in. Amanda continued working as an independent contractor as a registered dental hygienist when they first moved, which she had done for the last few years. Recently, she found a practice she loved enough to join full-time, and now works for a private dental office in Denver. They just purchased a house in September, 2019, and are currently renovating and remodeling it themselves, getting it ready for the first Raftis family Christmas in Colorado! They are loving the move, and enjoy camping, hiking with their dog and meeting new friends.
Michelle works in the Public Health world as a health educator in Atlanta. She was a lifestyle instructor at Wellstar Health System for four years, and is now Health Engagement Consultant for Cigna in Atlanta. She enjoys hiking, time with her dog, pottery, and loves to travel as often as possible. She spent summer 2019 backpacking throughout Portugal and Ireland, where she tracked down her Irish roots and was able to visit the last known relatives of her late grandfather George. Michelle ultimately hopes to return to school to further her education in healthcare, but is staying busy for now with her work and hobbies.
Matthew studied Physics at Georgia College and is studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Georgia. He loves playing tennis, enjoying time with family and friends.
The family enjoys living in a suburb of Atlanta. You can reach them at mike.raftis@gmail.com.
