"Raymond has a great sense of humor and while an optimist, he has a keen sense of people's motivations," said Elaine Russell, below right. Said Gena Hard, left, "I feel it is a privilege and an honor to know him and have him as a mentor."

"Raymond makes me better than what I would otherwise be," said Bill Hodges.   "He challenges me to prove my case and in turn makes me think through things better. There are only a few people we each encounter who make us better, and Raymond is that person for me."

Elaine Russell says that Raymond is a unique person who is sharp, innovative and always honest. "He has a great sense of humor and while an optimist, he has a keen sense of people's motivations. He loves a deal and I remember a saying of his I use in my life:  'Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered!'"

Elaine worked with Raymond in several capacities: first he was her client in 1990, then she worked at Resource Recovery Transfer and Transportation, and now he's a client again with her law firm. She admires that he spends a lot of time enjoying nature, using it as an opportunity to think things through, and that he is close to his family. He takes his grandchildren on fishing trips to Alaska and employs numerous family members. "That shows how much he values a close family," she said.

He is a very curious person, according to Elaine.   "I have always admired Mr. Cash's desire to travel the world. He has been to South America, China, Australia, Europe and Canada, just to name a few places. That has been an inspiration to me."  

Gena Hard points out another motivation for his world travels. "Whenever he took companies public or merged them and was in the midst of difficult negotiations, he would leave the country. We would say, 'Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?' But it was his way to detach and when he came back, he would be ready to finish negotiations. It was a shrewd tactic because it helped him gain some distance and it made some of the purchasers even more interested."

She met Raymond when she was just out of college, and went on to work with him extensively when she became a partner in her accounting firm. "He is probably the greatest entrepreneur I've ever known and was a huge factor in my life and my career," she said. "He taught me a lot about business and how to be successful."

He told her, "You only have to be right 51% of the time," and "It's okay to dance with the devil as long as you know who your partner is."

Gena considers him a visionary and has known him through his various careers, from road building, to handling public mergers, the liquid waste industry and now back into the landfill business. "I feel it is a privilege and an honor to know him and have him as a mentor in my own business development. He is in a league of his own."

She admires that he grew up in the tough times of the Depression, and no matter how successful he became, his work ethic and principles remained intact.

Leon Watkins considers him a special friend and says that if he had to go to war, Raymond would be his first choice to go with him. Just don't put him in charge of the car keys. Leon tells the story of when Raymond called him one day asking for a ride to work. When Leon arrived to pick him up, he asked Raymond what was wrong with his car. "Raymond said that he had trained his dog Bo to carry his keys and his briefcase to his car for him," said Leon. "But that day, Bo saw a squirrel in the yard, and took off chasing the squirrel into the woods. The keys were nowhere to be found."

Tom Chorey says that Raymond is his favorite client and that everybody at his firm loves him. "I identify with who he is and what he stands for," he said. "His handshake is his word. He is truly a man of his word." He also admires how he deals with the people around him. "He does not have a big ego and just wants to do the right thing. He deals with the highest echelons, and fits right in, but he respects people for who they are and not where they are."

He also talks about how much fun Raymond is to be around and how he enjoys a crapshoot. One of his favorite stories about Raymond involves a major transaction they were working on. "We had lawyers everywhere on both sides of this deal and each side had run up significant legal bills. Raymond was friends with the president of the other company and he went up to him at the end of the deal, as he stood there surrounded by his lawyers, and said, 'Hey, let's flip a coin and the loser has to pay the legal fees for both sides.' They were somewhat taken aback by this proposition, but the president, challenged in front of his peers, agreed. They flipped a coin and Raymond won. It was a good day."

Willard Nations feels very fortunate to have known Raymond. He has worked with him for more than 40 years and says that there are not enough words to express his gratitude for what Raymond has done for him. "He has always been very generous to me and my family and we will be forever grateful. This is supposed to be a Gift of a Lifetime for him, but he is the one who gave me the gift of a lifetime. All I know to say is he has made my dreams come true and he is a great friend."

He joins his other associates in wishing Raymond a very happy 75 th birthday!