Ray Randall Ward

It has come to my attention that Ray Ward, a former student of Desani’s at the University of Texas was described as Desani’s editor here. This is snatching at straws, I know, but absent any other information it is possible that The Rissala manuscript ended up in his possession. Further, it is possible that Ward or his heirs or assigns might have knowledge of its disposition.

Ray Ward was married to Mary Ann (Anne?). We met once in Austin at the Pemberton Parkway residence of Desani’s. The Wards had been students of Desani’s but moved away before I came on the scene. So I didn’t know them. Professor would mention them occasionally. They divorced sometime in the 1990’s. That’s my vague recollection. I saw Mary Ann post divorce while visiting Professor at his residence after he moved from Blossom Burn’s home (Pemberton Parkway, Austin, Texas). This was also after he had a stroke. At some point in the 1990s Stephen Greenberg, another former student, and attorney for Desani, informed me that Desani had moved to Ward’s home in Dallas.

Ray remarried Martha Elizabeth (Nee Hudson) in Dallas. They had a son. She passed away in 2014.

According to the above mentioned domain’s whois record the registrant is private and expires October, 2019. (enter the domain, hit enter)

While Todd Katz mentions this he doesn’t go into detail.

Perhaps this will assist those who come later that might be interested in the fate of Professor Desani’s magnum opus.

Iamdying.net is in the wayback machine.

As stated elsewhere I have pretty much withdrawn from pursuing the disposition of The Rissala ms. Desani used to say try something difficult three times. If you meet repeatedly with failure then conclude its just not supposed to happen. Its not willed. That’s me and Rissala. Except I exceeded the three several times over. As stated elsewhere here I reached out to he who would have been most likely to know of the disposition of the ms. I was rebuffed. No reply. I asked the University of Texas, Harry Ransom Center, repository for many of Desani’s papers whether they knew of the Rissala. They replied in the negative. I’ve talked to Todd Katz extensively about this. He states that anyone with knowledge of the fate of Rissala would undoubtedly know of his/our interest and efforts and could easily have come forward so something is holding them back.

In Todd’s most recent update of Desani.org he writes quite a bit about the atmosphere and disposition of Desani’s dozen followers, “disciples”, in Austin. I found it very helpful and insightful. You can read it on the home tab under the heading Texas Years at Desani.org. It helped me get beyond the feelings of rejection by my formerly close associates and reminded me that things often are not what they seem. I don’t know but maybe fate is teaching me that I am an impediment rather than a facilitator. I won’t trouble you with the unsettling effects I’ve endured because of these doubts except to say that my specific instruction is simply “to yield”. Therefore, I’m pretty much off the case unless something falls in my lap as this information about Mr. Ward did.