Occupation Free-Lance Announcer Spouse Maxine Szmanda Name Ray Szmanda | Years active 1951-1999 | |
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Born June 22, 1926 (age 97) ( 1926-06-22 ) Education University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin-Madison | ||
Joe kaufenberg and ray szmanda
Raymond Jack Szmanda, Sr. (born June 22, 1926) is a radio and television announcer who became well-known across the midwestern United States for his "Menards Guy," who has advertised for the home improvement store for more than two decades. He continues to periodically make new ads, and a comic likeness of himself remains in most of Menards' print and in-store advertising. Szmanda currently lives in Antigo, Wisconsin. His family includes four sons and three daughters. His wife, Maxine, died in 1999.
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Szmanda learned his trade at the American Institute of the Air, and took writing courses from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin–Madison.
He worked for radio and television stations as a staff announcer from 1951 to 1958, when he began to freelance. From 1959 until 1978, he operated the Trans-American School of Broadcasting in his hometown of Wausau, Wisconsin. His career with Menards began in 1976, and he was a fixture of the ads until 1998 when he retired. However, he partially returned to the job in 1999, making occasional ads since that time.
In addition to his announcing work, Szmanda has other hobbies, including drumming, collecting shiny rocks and collecting antique cars. He enjoyed operating Amateur Radio from 1995–2005, under the now expired callsign KB9JPB. Szmanda also started taking piano lessons in 2001.
Szmanda once appeared in a 1970s science fiction movie, The Alpha Incident [1]. He also hosted the Wausau version of High Quiz Bowl. His great-nephew Eric Szmanda is also known in television, primarily for playing former lab tech-turned-CSI Greg Sanders on CSI.