Raymond J. Nikolai, age 87, of Chili, passed away on Wednesday, December 27, 2023, at Marshfield Medical Center.

Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 am on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, at Rembs Funeral Home, Marshfield, where the visitation will be from 9:00 am until service time. Deacon Ray Draeger will officiate. Burial will be in McMillan Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Town of McMillan, where military rites will be conducted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1866.

Raymond was born on December 13, 1936, in the Town of Day, Marathon County, to Edmund and Caroline (Wenzel) Nikolai. He attended St. Andrew's Parochial School and was a 1954 graduate of Marshfield Senior High School. He was a veteran of the United States Army, serving from 1955 until his honorable discharge in 1958, including spending 2 ½ years in France. He started farming in the Town of Day in 1959 and moved to farm in the Town of Fremont, Clark County, in 1973.

He married Clara Ann Menke on June 8, 1973, at St. Andrew's Catholic Church, Rozellville.

Ray served on many committees, including the Town of Day Town Board, was accessor for the Town of Day, Clark County Fair Board, Grand Meadow Cheese Factory Board, Clark County Dairy Promotion Committee, Clark County Livestock Committee, Clark County Beef Committee and was Clark County Beef Chairman.

He was an avid sports fan, and loved watching baseball, college basketball, and football. He farmed all his life and loved working with kids at the Clark County Fair. After selling the farm in 2000, Ray was a substitute bus driver for the Granton School District for 11 years.

He is survived by his wife, Clara and their daughter, Michelle (John) Keller and grandson, Nate Keller. He is further survived by siblings, Rose Marie Wittenkeller, Eugene (Becky) Nikolai, Victor Nikolai, Leonard (Diane) Nikolai, Germaine Nikolai and Mary Lou (Don) Hafenbredl, sisters-in-law, Jeanette Nikolai and Teri Nikolai and brother-in-law, Louie Menke, as well as many nieces and nephews and other relatives and friends.

He was predeceased by his parents, sisters, Carrie (Jim) Hardinger and Eleanor Nikolai and brothers Frankie and Ted Nikolai, parents-in-law, Clarence and Evadene Menke, brother-in-law, Jim Wittenkeller, sisters-in-law, Sharon Menke and Ruth Nikolai, and nephews Bob Bruns, Uriel Nikolai and niece Shelly Nikolai.

In lieu of flowers memorials may be designated to the American Heart Association.