Ray H. Bossard Jr. of Palmerton is seeking the Democratic nomination for the office of Carbon County coroner and is also asking the Republican voters to write in Bossard in the primary election on May 19.

Bossard was born and raised in Palmerton, where his parents, Ray H. Bossard Sr. and Mary A. Bossard owned and operated Heimbach's Hotel on Lehigh Avenue.Bossard is a 1984 graduate of Palmerton High School. He and wife AnnMarie (George) have three children Trevor, 9; Trystin, 7; and Trynt, 5, and reside in Lower Towamensing Township.Bossard is a volunteer basketball coach for the Palmerton Youth Basketball Association, a life member of the West End Fire Co. 2 Palmerton and a former president of Palmerton Ambulance.Bossard has been a deputy coroner in Carbon County since 2006 and is currently employed with Carbon County as a senior dispatcher in the 911 Center since 2003 and is the AFSCME local 2483 Union president.Before that, he served in the U.S. Army as a Bridge Crew chief with the Combat Engineers serving at Camp Pelham, Korea; Fort Lewis, Washington; Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm; U.S. Army recruiter; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and Fort Hood, Texas. While in the Army, he attended Central Texas College and studied criminal justice.Bossard would like to continue the growth of the coroner's office that current coroner Bruce Nalesnik started. The office has seen many changes in the past 20 years, and continuing to grow with technology will be challenging, but is an achievable goal with training and continued support with state and local police, fire and EMS agencies.Ensuring that the proper steps and procedures are taken at the scene of a death to reassure family members that the death was natural, a suicide, homicide or accidental is a key element in maintaining Carbon County residents' confidence in local officials.