Ray "Chesty" Kretz of Sackett Lake

Captain Ray "Chesty" Kretz - veteran of the US incursions into Mexico against Pancho Villa - demonstrates his skill with a rifle and a canoe. This clip was taken of him at his cabin on Sackett Lake in the summer of 1957 or thereabouts. Filmmaker: Harold Bedick

[@johnweissman8987]

Not to forget the smell of the cabin, pelty and musty. Rumor had it Ray spent at least a few nites across the lake in a room at Kutchers. If I recall, once a summer kids were granted a tour of Ray's cabin, maybe part of a total nature package ? Let me also not forget our group's hushed and flushed and giggly reaction to the Playboy centerfold on a wall, a paper pelt among the skins and fur.s This was alien but wonderful stuff for us little Jewish kids from NYC, LI, and Westchester(me).

[@Joehalfadolla]

So you like that shirt. I believe that I gave that very shirt to my friend Chesty one evening while sitting wiht him next to his cabin and dock with my horse standing near by. I was the horseman at Camp Roosevelt one summer, and would ride to his cabin to sit with him. He said that he like my shirt, the blue flannel one that you see here, so I took it off at once and gave it to him. Before breakfast the next morning it had a U cut chest .

[@Joehalfadolla]

My name is Ira Presslaff. I was in charge of the riding program at Camp Roosevelt I believe in either 55' or 56'. I got to know Chesty that summer, and would spend time with him sitting out side of his cabin where I would ride my horse to after dark. In one of these U-tube posts Chesty is wearing a blue flannel shirt. It looks to me that it is the shirt I gave him one evening that I tell about in my up coming book called "Thoughts."

[@wheelzwheela]

Awesome. Not likely to find a man like that now a days.

[@andrewschwartz9879]

I was one of the "Luck Kids" who's grandparents had a summer cottage up the hill from Sackett Lake so every summer we escaped the city as soon as school was out for summer. My Grandfather Phil Levine was the constable for the area. My brother Mark and I would go on cabin checks with gramps in the fall at board up time. We were checking the fireman's camp and headed to Chestys cabin, we had always seen Chesty in his canoe coming from the Laurels, we would be fishing for perch, he would ask if we caught anything, showing him our stringer of fish Chesty would always offer us something neat from his pocket or in the canoe. Gramps decided this day to go to his cabin, wow what a treat that was! It was during one of our last visits to Sackett lake and to Chestys that it was revealed that all those fishing trips to the lake when we came home empty handed was because we traded for a pocket knife or spent rifle shells. It was during this last trip I was given by Chesty an old pristine Winchester pump 22 long rifle. I still have that gun after all these years. Phil and Fae Levine were my grandparents, anyone remember them?

[@AndyPober]

I was a camper at Camp Roosevelt for 10 summers (1956 - 1965) and Ray taught me how to shoot a rifle and more importantly, his example resulted in a lifelong love for camping and nature. He was ageless, mythic and a larger than life character.

[@ijohnny.]

Anyone know of the year and city/town of Ray's death/birth? Other bio? Thanks much.

[@rbedick]

+johnny.w Ray was born 2/5/1897. Died 5/22/1994.

[@ijohnny.]

Wow, lived a long time! THanks much for this info Robert. If you you know of any written bio/obituary plz let me know.

[@donskoller9505]

Wow. I'll be 84 in September and my Camp Roosevelt years were during WW2. Chesty is one of --if not THE most indelible memories of that experience. He seemed more quiet and even a bit aloof back then, more a large presence down by the lake. But he made himself even more unforgettable when one day later in the season he was called onto the main campus for a sharpshooting exhibition. Most of the camp was gathered around him and at one point he lay down on the turf and took aim at a water tower way up behind the cabins on the boys' side of the campus. We wondered what he was shooting at at this distance. I'm not sure he got it on the first shot but wouldn't be surprised: He shot at some kind of cage and when he hit it it opened upside down and a whole load of papers came floating flying down. We ran to retrieve them and it turned out they were announcing the start of that summer's color war --which always was launched dramatically but this was the most unforgettable (as you can see!). Cecil "Tex" Amdur was the head counsellor back then and my favorite bunk counsellor was a great guy named Jerry Kessler. His co-counsellor of our bunk was a guy whose name I remember but won't mention, one of the worst s.o.b.'s (liked to slap kids in the face) I ever encountered. Too bad Ray never aimed at him! (Just kidding).

[@howtodo2858]

I'm Scotti Schechter and I grew up on Sackett lake from 1958 till the present 2010 and I have many fond memories of the many hours I spent with Ray Kretz. This find video had me smiling ear to ear. He would stand in his green canoe in the middle of sackett lake and teach me the art of gunneling a canoe and how to paddle standing up in a canoe as well as archery and knife throwing. I miss him and was sad to hear of his death.

[@Joehalfadolla]

I was the horseman at Roosevelt one summer, They wanted me to sit with the campers when the had their meals. I found it uch more interesting eating with the help men who cleaned up the camp grounds. They all were from "skid row" and were most intersting people. The head chef was a huge man would also was an interesting individual. I write about them in my upcoming book called "Thoughts," As a waiter did you ever meet any of these folks?

[@johnweissman8987]

This confirms my belief that youtube is the best "corner" of the internet. I was in camp that summer, and for 10 others. Ray came to the dining hall and received a coke sometimes, compliments of some birthday boy or another.

[@jonathanrudolph4146]

I'm Jonathan Rudolph. I was a camper from 1975-80. My grandfather was "Uncle Jack" (Radom) who worked as the electrician there for I don't know how many years, but it was a lot. By the time I was a camper, Chesty was still a fixture. On Circus Day one year the man popped two balloons that were on either side of a machete...by firing at the edge of the machete and splitting the bullet. Most amazing thing I'd ever seen. Then he showed us the "quick draw" of taking his slung rifle into shooting position (it's in the video above) and said he was the fasted in the world with that trick. I don't doubt that. He'd walk around the waterfront dock wearing his Speedo, moccasins, and veteran's cap, tan as a piece of old leather, adjusting his hearing aid that squealed incessantly. He was old by then, but still the most incredibly fit man, who still lived year round in that musty cabin with no heat. I always wondered who wound up with the rifle of Frank James (Jesse's brother) that was hanging inside the door on the wall. Someone else commented about the Playboy pinup on the wall. That, the rifle, a police shooting range target, and some pelts are the only things I remember from the inside. He had that montage of pictures on the wall outside: him jumping over the rail into a canoe (like he did for, I think, Universal Studios), him holding the war canoe over his head with one arm, etc. There was one picture he always pointed to, and in his gumbly, raspy voice would say, "Thish ish the bear I shot, not a quarter mile from here. He wush a big black bear, weighing over 350 poundsh." Oh, and, "The dog'sh name ish Bimbo. The cat ish Timmy." By then they he no longer gave rifle lessons on the range down there, but he did have a walking stick (not a cane) with him that had a spent shotgun shell on its top. I remember a couple of campers once asking him if he liked women. His reply? "What are you, homozh?" That guy was one of a kind.