Four generations of the Lawton family have maintained leadership of Lawton Printing Inc. and FILE-EZ Inc. — an accomplishment many family businesses can’t claim. 

Instrumental to that level of continuity has been Ray Lawton, 79, who, along with his late brother Gary Lawton, represents the third generation to lead both Spokane companies.

“One of the things he did really well at is staying on the forefront of technology,” says Laura Lawton of her father Ray. “When he was running the printing company in the '90s and early 2000s, you went from actually pasting up your layout, to computers, to desktop publishing. We went from offset printing (to) one of the first hybrid digital presses in Spokane.” 

Laura Lawton is the current owner of Lawton Printing.

Lawton Printing was founded from humble beginnings, starting its operations out of a remodeled chicken coop behind the family’s home. Ray’s grandfather, Frank H. Lawton, established Lawton Printing with his son Frank A. Lawton, Ray’s father.

Ten years after launching the printing company, Ray’s father and grandfather established FILE-EZ, a pocket folder manufacturing company. Both Lawton Printing and FILE-EZ operate in a facility located near Spokane Community College, at 4111 E. Mission.

Born and raised in Spokane, Ray attended South Dakota State University, where he studied printing management. He then served two years in the Army, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was discharged in 1970 and awarded a Bronze Star for his service.

“I came back to Lawton Printing, and I found myself at the end of a printing press, stocking paper and feeding paper,” Ray says. “It was my father’s philosophy that it didn’t make any difference if I had a college degree. He thought, and now I agree, that you need to understand how our equipment runs and the way we handle things.”

Due to significant growth at both companies between 1970 and 1974, Ray’s responsibilities increased — likely faster than his father had hoped, he says.

“I got ratcheted up a little quicker than I think he thought I was going to,” he says.

A major driver of that growth stemmed from the printing company’s involvement with Expo ’74. With a massive influx of visitors expected to visit the Spokane area for the six-month event, there was a need for lodging that extended beyond what hotels at the time could provide. Fair organizers, he explains, had the idea to allow residents here to rent out parts of their houses to visitors.

To help spread the word about the alternative accommodations, Lawton Printing handled the printing of a lodging booklet prior to the fair — an effort led by Gary. The company also printed programs for hundreds of performances throughout the fair, thanks to a contract that Ray secured with Expo organizers.

“Every performance that happened had a program to it. There was a performance or more every day,” he recalls.

To land that contract, Ray pitched Lawton Printing's services to Mike Kobluk, former director of entertainment facilities for the city of Spokane, and Kevin Twohig, a 2025 Journal of Business Icon and former longtime CEO of the Spokane Public Facilities District. At the time, Kobluk was hired as director of performing and visual arts for the world’s fair, and he convinced Twohig to join him in the entertainment department, which operated out of a facility next to the Flour Mill on the north bank of the river, Ray explains.

Because there was concern about traffic during the fair that was expected to impact the timely distribution of the performance programs, Ray emphasized Lawton Printing's proximity to the fair's entertainment department. Lawton Printing was operating at a facility on North Monroe at the time.

“We’re the only printer on the north side of the river that can do this for you, and we’re not more than 10 minutes away,” Ray told the two men, ultimately securing the deal.

The company also was selected to print the Expo ’74 commemorative book at the conclusion of the fair, Ray says, crediting his father for landing the contract.

“We came out of that different people than we were going in,” he says of the Expo ’74 experience. “That was a stepping stone towards the transition of the companies.”

Two years later, in 1976, Ray was named president of Lawton Printing by his parents, who also named his brother Gary as president of FILE-EZ. Both brothers had ownership stakes in each company.

Beyond involvement in Expo ’74, Lawton Printing has served other large organizations in the community throughout its 86 years of existence. Some notable clients include Washington Water Power, Kaiser Aluminum, the Pacific Northwest Bell telephone company, and the Spokane Chiefs and Spokane Indians. The company still serves both Spokane sports teams today, Ray says.

Having steered Lawton Printing through two generational shifts — including his own ascension and later his daughter's appointment to president — Ray kicked off a second chapter of his career with the launch of Rumpeltes & Lawton LLC, a Spokane-based business transition consulting company around 2010.

Ned Rumpeltes, who Ray met in the inaugural class of Leadership Spokane in 1983, co-founded the business with him.

“We really think part of our obligation from Leadership Spokane was to give back to the community in some significant way, and even though we were charging for what we were doing, … those companies are better than they would have been if they wouldn’t have contracted with us,” Ray says of the roughly 40 companies they consulted with over the years.

In addition to entrepreneurship, Ray was an active board member at over a dozen organizations, including Joya Child & Family Development, Whitworth University, the Whitworth University Foundation, the Advertising Federation of Spokane, the Fairmount Memorial Association, and multiple other organizations and initiatives.

He has also served in multiple regional and national printing industry roles, including as chairman of the board for Printing Industries of America, the Pacific Printing Industries Association, and the Graphic Arts Education & Research Foundation, among other organizations.

“(He did) a lot of work in Washington, D.C., with our national printing association, and he became chair of that association,” Laura says. “It gave us in Spokane, Washington, a lot of connections nationally that we may not have had.”

Ray has earned multiple awards over time, including the Lewis Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award from Printing Industries of America in 2016.

His son, Aaron Lawton, who leads FILE-EZ, says his father takes a lot of pride in both family businesses, explaining that at one point, when FILE-EZ was going through a down period, Ray stepped in to help keep the business together.

“Just because he thought it was important. He didn’t take a salary for many years,” Aaron says. “It was important for him to keep that going, even if it wasn’t profiting him.”