Guy Reed Ramsey was born August 15, 1894 in Warrensburg, Missouri. His parents were Ebenezer Carter Ramsey and Sarah Addie Carter. Ebenezer died when Guy was just sixteen, leaving Guy as de facto head of household for his mother, older sister, and five younger siblings. Despite this hardship, Guy still succeeded in graduating from Warrensburg High School in 1913. 

When he registered for the draft in June of 1917, Guy reported that he was employed as a traveling salesman and financially responsible for his mother, a sister, and two brothers. Guy served stateside in naval aviation during World War I, and afterwards worked as a credit manager for a Kansas City wholesale hardware firm.

But in 1925, at the age of 31, his life took a new turn when he enrolled at the University of Washington. He joined the School of Forestry and during his studies served as Business Manager for the UW periodical Forest Club Quarterly in 1928. Guy completed his Bachelors of Science in Forestry in 1929, and earned a Masters in Forestry in 1931.

Guy returned to the mid-west and married Ida Catherine Schneider on May 1, 1933 in Missouri. The couple moved to Ames, Iowa where Guy was on the Forestry staff of Iowa State College. Guy and Ida became parents to two sons, Lee and Fred. It was during this time when Guy began developing his hobby of researching post office history and marcophily (the study of postmarks). This led to the completion of his first manuscript, which was eventually published in 1976 as Postmarked Iowa.

After World War II, and over a decade in Iowa, the Ramsey family packed up and moved back to the west coast where Guy accepted a position as a salesman for a treated lumber company located in Portland, Oregon. 

In a short autobiography he wrote introducing his research on Clark and Skamania county post offices, Guy said his interest in the topic "came about as the result of a collection he has made over the years of envelopes and postcards from Washington post offices which have been discontinued or changed their names, a collection which in 1963 contained some 850 names.” 

His passion for the subject was enabled by long sales trips across the state. Between 1944 and his retirement in 1960, Guy spent weeks in his company Chevrolet traveling between towns in Washington selling wood-treating chemicals – and researching post offices. Sometimes his wife Ida accompanied him, but Guy’s inherent salesman talents enabled him to talk easily with people about long distant post office history as well as treated lumber. Guy also had no small amount of artistic ability, and often completed watercolor drawings to accompany his entries for each post office.

After his retirement, Guy continued his post office research, and worked diligently to get the results published. It was a hard sell, and no single volume of his work for the state of Washington has ever been published (despite the fact that the Washington State Historical Society evidently sponsored much of his work). However, Guy did live to see a good number of county histories in print – mostly through the efforts of local historical societies. A conflict with Bert Webber of Ye Galleon Press, documented by letters in the manuscript collection of the Washington State Library, resulted in only one posthumous volume of an agreed to three volumes for eastern Washington to ever be published. Other challenges also prevented the entire body of his work to be published during his lifetime. (See the Bibliography for details about the published volumes of Postmarked Washington.)

Guy and Ida moved to Corvallis, Oregon in 1974 and it was there he died on April 28, 1980. He was buried at Willamette National Cemetery. After his passing, Guy’s vast collection of post office art, memorabilia, and post mark cancellation stamps was sold. Fortunately, his research remains in the form of the books published, and the manuscript collections he deposited at the Washington State Library.

Shortly before his death, the Board of Curators for the Washington State Historical Society voted to name Guy Reed Ramsey as one of the first David Douglas Award winners in recognition of his contributions to the study of Washington’s history. In obituaries published by his family, it was that requested memorials in Guy’s honor be sent to that institution. 
 

Sources:

University of Washington Tyee yearbook, 1928, 1929, 1931.
“About the Author of the Post Office Research” by Guy Reed Ramsey, Clark County History, vol. IV 1963, page 50.
Obituary for Guy Reed Ramsey published in the April 29, 1980 Corvallis Gazette Times. 
“Introduction” to Postmarked Washington: Pierce County, written by Robert Hitchman, President of the Washington State Historical Society, 1981.
"Going Postal: Oregon Man's Forgotten Quest to Document Washington History," by Feliks Banel, August 26, 2020.
Various genealogical records courtesy of Ancestrylibrary, accessed on November 18, 2021.