During my last 2-3 years of high school, I was working weekends in a wood factory. During each shift, a recurrent though was that I was eager for the shift to end. I realized that when one has a job that one does not like, one continually wishes that the shift—the life—finishes. This was not the life I wanted. I wanted a fun and challenging job, so it was a given that I had to go to university.

That job appears to be the one he holds today. “I’m lucky,” he says, “At work, I am paid to do what I like.” What he likes is data and risk analysis. SPSS programming is both his primary tool, and his primary hobby, and he has designed custom toolbars to help him work more efficiently. He is also the author of SPSS Programming and Data Management (published by SPSS in December 2003), which is a veritable treasure map to expertise in SPSS.

With his wife, Nicole (his sweetheart since they were 15 years old), he stays active by bicycling, hiking, snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing, ice-skating and walking. It’s pretty clear, after speaking with Ray, that he is convinced by the results of his own analyses that exercise contributes to a long and healthy life. In his words, “Exercise is important. It’s good for the brain and good for the body.”

Ray and Nicole were raised speaking only French in French-speaking Quebec, and studied no English in grammar school. This presented no impediment while Raynald worked toward his Bachelor’s in Mathematics from the bilingual University of Ottawa, where students may study in their choice of French or English. But when he enrolled at the University of Toronto, where his classes would be taught in English, he had the daunting task of learning English while working toward his Master’s degree in Statistics.