Ray Cooper near the site of the 1932 Doris Disaster. Ray was aged three, the second oldest of four sons, when the accident occurred. He has no memory of his dad. He and his brothers shifted around with their mum Florence for a while before being placed in an orphanage. He began working at 14, eventually becoming a bricklayer and plasterer. He married Ngaire and they raised four kids. “Mum never talked about dad, ever, until the day she died. The kids at school would talk about what they’d done with their dads, but it was a non-event for us,” he said.