James Davis Ray Jr. (1918–1990) was an American botanist, herbarium director, and college dean.
In 1939 James Davis Ray, Jr., graduated with a bachelor's degree in botany from Mississippi State University.
In 1951 he graduated with a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Illinois, where George Neville Jones was one of the professors.
In 1959 Ray was the first USF faculty member hired, a year before the first classes were held.
[4] In Oktibbeha County, Mississippi on November 21, 1946, he married Dorothy Ernestine Burkett (1923–2015).