The shooting sports community is mourning the loss of Raymond Anti, a longtime National Matches volunteer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran who sadly lost his battle with cancer on Friday, April 19, 2024. He was 91 years old.
Raymond Anti was born in Plymouth, Mass., on January 6, 1933. Double-Distinguished in Pistol and High Power Rifle shooting, Anti proudly served more than 30 years as a Marine before retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer 4. He also worked as a volunteer at the National Matches for 45 years, a feat that will likely be unmatched. At the National Matches, Anti held several jobs, including working as a line officer, a member of the awards office staff, referee and many other duties. Additionally, he was a former U.S. Naval Academy Smallbore Rifle Team head coach, working as a volunteer without pay for 14 years. The U.S. Naval Academy Rifle Team lost to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point several times until Anti came on as the rifle coach, who guided the team to several winning seasons during his 14-year tenure.
Competitive shooting runs in the Anti family, as his son, Mike Anti, is an Olympic silver medalist and the current U.S. Naval Academy Rifle Team head coach, and grandson, Will, is the head coach of the 2023 NCAA rifle champion University of Alaska-Fairbanks Rifle Team. He also had two daughters that were trained in the shooting sports.
He loved the competitive shooting community and was also a mentor to many young people as a coach at several rifle clubs and organizations. Anti was extremely proud of his work with young shooters. Not only did he form teams wherever he went, he also helped other kids succeed. No matter where Ray Anti was stationed, he made sure that youth in the area had the opportunity to learn the shooting sports.
“He might have been tough in how he taught them things, but even young kids loved my dad,” Anti’s daughter Shelle told me. “They respected him.”
In addition, Ray Anti was a member of the Black Hawk Rifle Club, also spending some of his time assisting the Friends of NRA committee in Greenville, North Carolina.
“I first met Ray when he was assigned as a referee for our matches at North Carolina State. He was stationed in North Carolina, and his little boy Mike, age 10, was just starting to shoot. That was about 50 years ago. He was fiercely proud of Mike as an Olympic silver medalist and the U.S. Naval Academy Rifle Team head coach, along with Mike’s son, Will, as head coach of the Alaska-Fairbanks Rifle Team. Ray worked many times as a block officer during Smallbore at Camp Perry, and always decorated his block with American flags behind each point,” NRA Board Member Edie Fleeman said.
To honor Anti’s 45 years of service as a volunteer at the National Matches, in 2019 the National Rifle Association presented him with a shadow box that contained his 45 volunteer pins and year tabs. This special gift was made by fellow longtime NRA National Matches volunteer John Rickards.
He will be missed by many.
Legends: Raymond Anti
January 6, 1933 – April 19, 2024
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