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| Ray Pepper, Joe Todd, Mary Elizabeth (Betty & Maude) Neely Todd Pepper December 2012 |
Another Ray Pepper Story
Ray was
Springfield Federation of Teachers President and very active in the Ohio
Federation of Teachers in the late 60s and early 70s before he left teaching.
He left teaching during the student rights demonstrations. He promised a student
that he didn’t have to leave his class unless he wanted to join the
demonstration in the yard along side his classroom. A gang of students paraded
through Ray’s classroom and carried out the kid; Ray tried to stop them. While
he was very large he also was very awkward and fell down while the kid was
being taken out. The school administration being timid and anti union did not
back him. Earlier he had been put in charge of herding students out of the
building after school, walkie talkie and all. Ray did not like this at all and
it began to really trouble him. A number of things happened that began to make
him think that the administration was purposefully targeting him as president
of the teachers union. He quit and worked for a year or two as a social worker
in Montgomery County.
I was asked to
talk to the Ohio Federation regarding their fears of inclusion kids with
disabilities. I was telling Ray they were all worked up. He all of a sudden got
as alert as I have seen him in years, and he said “ I don’t wonder, a few years
ago you were trying to get them all (handicapped kids) out of the regular class
and now you want to put them all back in.” This is not quite so. We wanted to
put in special classes those who could not be effectively taught in regular classes
and put into regular classes those who could benefit, but his reaction is
typical Ohio Federation of Teachers. At another meeting with the Toledo
Federation President Dal Lawrence, I mentioned Ray’s name as having invited me
to speak to the 1970 Ohio Federation of Teachers convention and having never
been invited back. Dal said, “Ray Pepper! he was my model - my hero when I was
first starting out in the teachers movement. They are going to give Ray an
award.” I told him he was the
“hero of labor” – Later I mentioned this story to Ray and he really got a kick
out of that. - - - Ray Pepper was the hero of my life.
More About Ray
I had been very
active in the Camera Club when attending High School in Ft. Wayne, IN and I
continued this interest during my senior year in Urbana. I set up a darkroom in
a storage closet. Ray took a big interest in it and began using it also. Soon
after I joined the Navy, they moved into a house right across the street and he
set up a larger more elaborate darkroom in the basement. Within a short time he
began to take portraits commercially after school and soon had a thriving
business on the side for a number of years. Ray and Maude (what I had begun to
call my Mother after a mule in a comedy movie during my senior year) became
active in the Urbana Community Playhouse. They did the whole thing, acting,
stage set up as well as publicity and Ray also took the pictures. Ray and Maude did well together.
As Ray and Maude
“aged,” unpaid bills and unfilled income tax returns began to pile up – money
management became a problem. After consulting with the bank, Clyde Smith, vice
president of the bank, became their legal guardian as he was local and was able
to stop by their house almost everyday as he walked to work. Ray accepted this with grace and called
Clyde his “business manager” and often bragged about it. When Clyde retired and
moved to FL I became their legal guardian. David Todd moved to Urbana to looked
after them for a couple of years and worked at jobs around town. My Mother died on 16 July 1983. After
Maude died, Ray who had not been driving for sometime gave him his car.
Sometime after that David left for California and got married on 4/24/1984 to
Carol George. As a side note I was
born on 4/24/34. David went on to build his career in photography with Olan
Mills and then started his own photography company specializing in church year
books at first and then in medical society directories. Later the company
morphed into an international company specializing first responder
communication software.
Ray continued to
live alone in the house at 313 Scioto Street in Urbana, OH. I tried to get over
as frequently as I could and always brought him over for family
holiday get togethers. When visiting him in Urbana, when we were leaving he
would always go out into busy Scioto Street and when the traffic was clear he
would motion us out of his driveway with big arm motions – we remember it and
chuckle about it to this day when I try to guide people out of the driveway of
our current townhouse.
Then one day he
had a severe stroke; I was at a Church meeting in the evening when Julia called
to tell me; I immediately left for the Urbana hospital; the stroke was severe
and permanently paralyzed his right side preventing him from walking or
standing ever again; he did regain normal speech after awhile and his mind
seemed just fine. We agonized over how to care for him in our home in
Worthington since he was so tall, big and heavy – they were using a lifting
device at the hospital and later in the nursing home. We finally decided that
the nursing home in Urbana was the better place for him as an amazing number of
students; associate teachers from past years, and friends were always dropping
by to see him – he had been an extremely popular teacher – American history to
Ray was not simply facts and dates, but stories about people’s lives and how
that affected history and our lives. His students loved him. One of them even
worked at the nursing home. I got
over to see him at least once a week and sometimes twice. Anna Kelly, Ray and
Maude’s former housekeeper and their long time friend, rode her bike out to see
him every once in awhile. Ray and
I traded stories and laughs. His uplifting nature and positive attitude made
him a favorite around the nursing home.
When Julia and I
had the opportunity to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, we gave leaving Ray for a year a lot of thought; I did
discuss it with Ray; it was a very difficult decision. Julia’s parents
volunteered to visit him frequently and did, often they picked up Anna and took
her with them. Julia and I went on a mission to Nassau, The Bahamas. We left in
the spring of 1996. Ray died 9/20/1996. I was just in the process of making a
tape of some strange sounds such as the wind through the palm trees for him and
people practicing their music for Junkanoo day after Christmas celebration that
came floating into our apartment through the “bush” next to our backyard – I
never got to send it. After his death we did extend our mission for another few
months.
Julia’s Mom &
Dad, Mary and Bill Holton took care of all the funeral arrangements and Ray’s
estate. We had had some discussions and made some arrangements just in case Ray
died while we were out of the country. Jennie Todd Griffin came down from
Grosse Pointe, MI for the graveside service. Anna Kelly was present along with
Mary and Bill.
Ray Pepper was my
friend, Father, role model, and my hero - he helped me pass through a tough
time of my life by the way he interacted with me. Rarely a day goes by that he
is not in my thoughts and today is Sep 21, 2012. I look forward to the day when
we are reunited. I do not know
what I would have done or how I would have turned out without his steady
positive, guidance, support and influence. - - Joe Todd September 2012
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