We regret to report that "combine expert" Ray Stueckle, 67, passed away May 30, three days after suffering a massive heart attack at his home in Caldwell, Idaho.

Ray was a mechanical genius who could build and fix most anything -- particularly combines. Thousands of farmers throughout the U.S. and Canada operate machines that have been "Stuecklized" according to some of Ray's recommendations.

His combine books have been among the highest reader-response items ever featured in FARM SHOW. Virtually every one of the more than 500 combine clinics he conducted over the past 15 years was a "sold out" situation. While at home, he was constantly on the phone, helping distressed combine owners solve "impossible" mechanical problems.

"The family bought Ray a radio phone as a present several years ago so he could take calls outside right from the seat of his garden tractor," Ray's wife Arline told FARM SHOW. She notes that their son Dale, and son-in-law David Organ, will be taking over management of the family's R and H Machine business, headquartered in Caldwell. Founded by Ray, the business specializes in long wearing chrome alloy cultivator, subsoiler, chisel and harrow points and shovels.

As most welding experts will tell you, you can't weld chrome to steel. But Ray figured out how to do it, producing replacements that last 10 to 20 times longer than standard points and shovels.

". . . On Allis Chalmers combines, it's important that you don't reverse the cylinder bars, in spite of what the owner's manual tells you."

"... Every one of the feeder chains I've seen on New Holland rotary combines has been factory installed backwards."

". . . Possibly the greatest help you can give a Gleaner rotary is to double the number of helical transfer fins on the inside of the cage."

That's Ray "telling it like it is" in his two best-selling books (upwards of 50,000 copies sold to date) on how to "boost capacity at least 20 percent and virtually eliminate cracked kernels" by "Stuecklizing" your combine. His "Combine Setting for Better Harvesting" book details Ray's recommendations for modifying most makes of combines up to but not including rotaries. His "Setting Your Rotary Combines For Better Harvesting" covers rotaries.

Ray's wife Arline plans to continue offering the combine books. She also plans to complete a third book she and Ray were working on. Called "Dear Ray", it's a collection of "most asked" questions from combine owners.

So, just as Ray would have wanted, it's "business as usual" back at his machine shop, and with his popular combine books.