Answer: Additional Ray Kelly biographical information

[Questioner asked a followup question, saying that s/he was aware of someone named Ray Kelly who was an 18 year old marine stationed in the UK in 1955, and was trying to find out if NYC police commissioner Kelly was that Ray Kelly].

Biographical data about Kelly in another New York Times article ( August 4, 1992, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final. SECTION: Section B; Page 2; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk. BROWN'S RESIGNATION; Interim Leader Has a Reputation as a Problem-Solver. By MICHEL MARRIOTT). says that he received his undergraduate degree from Manhattan College in 1963. Among other degrees and dates included in that article.

That article also says: "Having considered a military career, he became interested in police work soon after joining the Police Cadet Program at Manhattan College. Upon graduation, Mr. Kelly, who was born and raised on the Upper West Side, became a city police officer at age 21.

"Almost immediately, however, he took a leave from the department to serve three years in the Marine Corps, including a year in Vietnam."

So, while Kelly was in the marines, all of this information does seem inconsistent with him being in in the marines in 1955 at an age of 18. Along with the 1941 birthdate I found in the other article. Unless, as you say, for some reason this information in New York Times articles can't be trusted; it's certainly possible that the info in those articles is false (although one would hope that the NYT writers would do some basic fact checking of at least some of the biographical info given by Kelly, we can't verify that for sure), but I'm not sure where else to go.

There are many other people named Ray Kelly, I'm afraid. The "Biographical and Geneological Master Index", which largely indexes entries from the various "Who's Who..." books, lists a couple dozen Ray or Raymond Kelly's--and those are just the ones who have done something notable enough to be listed in a "Who's Who" book.

Actual military records might be one way to figure out exactly what the NYC commissioner Kelly dates of service were. Here is some information on requesting military records, but it looks like specific personal information that you do not have is required to request all military records (and permission of the person involved is required for some):

The website of the National Archives and Records Administration has information on obtaining military personnel records at http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records.html

Limited information is available to members of the general public via these requests according to the FOIA, and is outlined at http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records/foia_info.html#mprfoia

Information for the general public seeking to obtain such records is at http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records/general_public.html

Answer: Ray Kelly Date of Birth

Hi, this is in response to your question to Radical Reference about NYC Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly's date of birth.

I managed to find a New York Times article that gave Kelly's date of birth as Sept. 4, 1941. That's from "Man in the News: Raymond Walter Kelly; A Street-Smart Boss" by Craig Wolff, New York Times, October 17 1992, Section 1; Page 28; Column 4; Metropolitan Desk.

This was a somewhat tricky fact to find. Kelly has an entry in the book "Who's Who in America," but although most Who's Who entries have a date of birth, Kelly's does not have a date of birth, and also lists the universities he has degrees from but without dates of degrees. I spent some time looking on the internet with Google, unsuccessfully. I ended up using the Lexis Academic database to search the archive of US Northeastern region newspapers for articles with with Raymond W. Kelly in the headline or first paragraph. Among the results from that search, I found the above article, written when Kelly was first appointed police commissioner, as well as several others in the Times that gave ages for Kelly consistent with the Sept 4 1941 birthdate--I couldn't find any mention of Kelly's exact birth date or year except for the article mentioned above, however.

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