Raymond Bates BUKER

Ray Buker won the AAU mile in 1924-25. In 1923, he competed on an Illinois AC 4xmile relay team that bettered the world record. Buker also won the 2-mile race at the 1921 Penn Relays. He attended Bates College in Maine.

Buker was the son of the Reverend Fred Buker Maine, and Ray also opted for a religious life, leaving sports to do missionary work in Bolivia, after doing additional study in theology at Boston University. He later did missionary work in Burma (Myanmar) in 1942, and it was thought he was killed by invading Japanese forces; however, he had actually escaped on one of the last planes to leave for India. Buker later worked for the Conservative Baptist Foreign Missionary Society.

Personal Bests: 1500 – 3:55.8 (1924); 2 miles – 9:43.0 (1921).