Durfee was a City Fixture, Champion of Small Business

Ray Durfee, a fixture in the community known for his trustworthiness, public service, business acumen and trademark bow tie, died Feb. 2.

He was 88.

He leaves behind friends and family who will miss his unyielding presence at in Rolfe Square where he worked since his boyhood until last October when his health began to decline.

When Durfee first walked into Cranston City Hall many years ago, he was given a hard time.

“He went up there for something and got a lot of grief,” said his son, Paul Durfee.

That was when he decided to run for office.

“Nobody ever threw him out of City Hall again.”

From that point, Ray Durfee followed a path of public service that brought him to the State House for eight years as a representative and senator and to a seat in the Constitutional Convention as a Rhode Island delegate. In the Senate, he served as Senate Chaplin, opening each session with prayer.

He also kept the family business in Rolfe Square running smoothly, maintaining the hardware store’s reputation for friendly service and expert advice after he took it over from his father upon his return from World War II.

“He was an honest guy,” Paul Durfee said recently from his office on the second floor of the Durfee building. “He’s been a fixture in this city his entire life.”

Durfee was a Republican in a state where it isn’t easy to be elected as one, earning votes from both sides of the aisle.

“If he told you something, it was gospel,” his son said. “You never had to worry.”

His loyalty and love for Cranston, especially for Rolfe Square, earned him the title “the Mayor of Rolfe Square.” He is credited with helping to spark the area’s revival and ensuring the city leaders continuously paid attention to it.

He spent his entire life at the hardware store, beginning as a boy when his father founded the business in 1929. After he took it over, his sons worked there and to this day, Paul Durfee keeps it going, even as competition from big box stores makes it increasingly challenging to sustain.

“I’ve been doing this since I could carry something up the stairs,” Durfee said. “It’s not easy. We’ll miss him.”

After a morning’s worth of work, Durfee would take his boys for a double feature at the Park Theatre every Saturday. It kept the boys out of their mother’s hair. At the end of the day, he’d pay them 50 cents for their morning’s work. That money usually went toward candy.

“That was enough candy to get sick,” Durfee said.

Sundays were his tough day, Durfee said, because the shop was closed and he didn’t have anywhere to go. He went to church, but that was only for a few hours a day.

When his wife died 17 years ago, he kept working.

“He’d sit at the front desk and if someone needed a key, he’d get up, walk to the back, make the key, and come back,” Durfee said. “He loved being here.”

The shop’s ethos is based on customer service.

“When you run this kind of business, you help people,” Durfee said. “At Home Depot and Lowe’s, you buy something and leave. Here, you come in and people help you. You get attention and we do things nobody else can do.”

To this day, big box stores send people to Durfee’s when they can’t help them because they know Durfee’s will have it in stock or know where to find it.

He had a dry sense of humor and it shined through to the very end. While in hospice, Paul’s brother was signing through piles of paperwork.

“You wouldn’t think it would be this difficult to die,” Durfee quipped.

Mayor Allan W. Fung said Durfee was an "institutional icon" and made Cranston a better place.

"He was an ambassador for Rolfe Street and our city.  He was committed to public service and was a strong voice for our city in the legislature for numerous years," Fung said. "He did so many wonderful things for the community and we have benefited from his generosity in time and resources. Cranston is a better place and I can only wish for more people like Ray Durfee in our city and the world."

Durfee attended Cranston High School and graduated from Brown University in 1944 with a degree in economics. He joined the U.S. Navy and was a lieutenant in World War II where he landed Marines on Iwo Jima. He was the first officer in New England to be called back into service when the Korean War began.

As a parishioner of St. David’s Episcopal Church, he taught Sunday School classes.

He leaves behind three sons; Paul, Peter and David, of North Scituate and three grandchildren and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

He was buried in Quidnesset Memorial Cemetery in North Kingstown.

His final wish was for friends to donate to St. David’s Church in his memory and to support small business.