Raymond Schwartz grew up in West Allis, WI. After graduating from high school, he worked as an apprentice machinist for Allis Chalmers Corporation, until enlisting in the Army in February 1943.
He served in the military as a member of the Special Engineer Detachment at Los Alamos, NM, during the Manhattan Project. There he met his first wife, Catherine. They both received a letter from J. Robert Oppenheimer thanking them for their contributions to the war effort. Schwartz was discharged from the military in 1946, and enlisted in the US Reserve the next day. He remained at Los Alamos as a civilian glassblower until October 1946.
After the war, Schwartz pursued a career in electronics in the Air Force, and was stationed around the country. He rose to the rank of Chief Master Sergeant. After retiring from the Air Force, he worked for the ITT Federal Electric Corporation at Vandenberg AFB for twenty years, retiring as a Senior Engineer in January 1986.