Metro Monthly

After the end of the academic year, Rayen will cease to be a city high school, but its memory lingers with many former students who recall how the North Side institution prepared them for life – in and outside of the classroom. For many, The Rayen School was revered for its academic excellence and as an institution that prepared students for higher education.

“A high school of the caliber of Rayen, in the early twentieth century is equivalent to a college education today,” said Bill Lawson, director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. “It was an academy of higher education, that the community was very proud of.”

“Rayen had a great tradition as the first high school in town,” said Reid Schmutz, a 1960 Rayen graduate. Schmutz currently serves as a trustee for the Rayen Foundation and Youngstown Foundation. “You always had a lot to live up to,” he said. “There were a lot of great alumni in town, a lot of role models that you had to live up to. Being a Rayen graduate, it put a little pressure on you to excel and not blemish the name of the school and follow in the steps of those who came before you.”

Because of Rayen’s high academic standards and success rate, which saw graduates moving on into top colleges, the school also attracted students from other parts of the state. “The curriculum was widely recognized. People came from all over the Western Reserve Territory,” said current Rayen Principal Henrietta Williams. The Western Reserve area encompassed the Northeast area of Ohio including Cleveland, Chardon, Hudson, Medina and surrounding communities.

A trust from the estate of Judge William Rayen created and funded the school and provides an endowment for scholarships. The Rayen School opened in 1866 and did not exclude due to race, creed, gender or color. Although many of its early students were from affluent families, young men and women had to demonstrate academic success. “It was always a public high school but [academic] exclusivity made it like a prep school,” said Lawson.

“No one was there to fool around. If you were disruptive, you were out. That gave Rayen a high quality of student body and of academic achievement. For wealthy kids, it was part of their finishing before they went off to college,” he said.

Lawson pointed out that most young people at that time only went as far as eighth grade. Then, they moved on to life working in steel mills or other occupations. “After World War I, and more so after the Great Depression, we see that there was a call for mandatory high school.”

Williams credited Judge Rayen for his vision. “He was beyond his years,” she said. “It was for all children. It was not meant to be elitist. That was Rayen’s desire. It just so happened that when the teachers sat down, they patterned it after Harvard and top schools in the country.”
“So, it was impressive when you came out of Rayen. Those schools would recognize and accept you,” Williams added.

Lawson said The Rayen School reached its pinnacle in the early twentieth century, due to its faculty and academic standards. “You must remember that Youngstown was a very dynamic and affluent city during that period.” He compared turn-of-the-century Youngstown to the Silicon Valley of today, due to its robust industries and technological innovations. “Rayen followed the fortunes of the city, which have not been so good in the last 30 to 40 years,” Lawson added.

Suburban population shifts affected enrollment and the money to support the schools. Lawson mentions that such financial issues have created a degree of difficulty for Rayen’s students to compete with the school’s lauded past.
“There’s still a strong tradition in Rayen. It comes to the surface with alumni, students and faculty. Tradition is still there, pride is still there, there are still academic achievements. Still, it graduates kids who go on to top universities, who excel academically and athletically.”

Schmutz recalled the dedication of Rayen faculty. “During my senior year, every teacher one or both of my parents had too. They were a dedicated and experienced faculty.”

Schmutz said he most remembers the diversity of the student population: “. . . a great melting pot – children of steel workers, first generation immigrants, a mix of where people lived – the North Side of Youngstown – which went all the way down to the projects to those in Liberty who paid tuition. It was a good of mix of kids. “The [Rayen] trustees represent that at this point.”

Phyllis Wilkoff, a 1943 Rayen graduate, also remains involved with the school as a Rayen Trustee. Born and raised in Youngstown, she still sees its continued influence in the community. “It’s still a good school. Some very bright kids in that school,” she said. “We have an honor roll dinner every year just before graduation.

They tell us what scholarships these kids have earned. There are kids getting $80,000 in scholarships! A lot of these kids are from one-parent families, and they are just such wonderful kids. I just sit there with my mouth open when they say what scholarships they’ve gotten.”
“Judge Rayen left money for The Rayen School under the jurisdiction of Probate Court. The school comes to us for money, according to what the Probate [Court] rules. With the school being torn down, the court will tell us what to do. We do give scholarships to Rayen and other high schools, and I believe we’ll continue to do that,” Wilkoff said.

Group works to preserve
historic Rayen mural for
future generations

By Christine Davidson
Metro Monthly Staff Writer

When we heard that Rayen was going to be torn down, the very thought of the wrecking ball going through that wall and taking down that painting, it was too much. [I thought] this can’t happen,” said Betsy Johnquest, a teacher at Rayen High School on Youngstown’s North Side.

Johnquest was referring to what is known as the Rayen Mural. The work is about 65-feet long and 6-feet tall. It depicts school, city and United States history from 1802 to 1958. Through the efforts of Johnquest and others, the mural was recently removed and will be reinstalled in the new Rayen Middle School planned for the site.

Johnquest, who began teaching at Rayen in 1989, said the mural captured her attention some time ago. “It [the mural] starts from when Youngstown started and it progresses with local Youngstown history at the bottom, Rayen history coming through in the middle, and national history at the top. So as you walk along and look at the mural you can see what is happening on the national scene, at Rayen and as well as what’s going on in Youngstown.”

Thousands of people appear in the mural, including World War I doughboys, Rayen choir members, athletes, scholars, teachers and students.
The mural begins with a focus on Judge William Rayen. “Rayen came to this area in 1802 when he was about 21 years old,” said Harry Mays, a 1958 Rayen graduate also involved in the current mural preservation project.

While serving as Rayen class president, Mays was in charge of raising the original funds for the mural, which was a class gift to the school.
“He [Rayen] started a mercantile store . . . and that store became kind of a central point in the village and on the mural there is a picture of the store with a military man standing in front of a line of recruits. Those recruits were all kinds of different people and when the War of 1812 started, William Rayen and a bunch of men from this area went up to Michigan and fought in the War of 1812,” Mays said.

Detailing the mural’s origins, Mays said: “We were approached by the art teacher [John J. Benninger] and he said he wanted to do this and it was his suggestion that we use this as a class gift simply because it was an easy thing to do. Each student gave about two or three dollars a person back then, so the cost was around $700 that we put up. His cost was for paint and the canvas and other materials, so, basically, there was no labor cost; it was all material costs. For us, it was a no-brainer. When it was done, we couldn’t have been happier.”

The mural served as the thesis for Benninger’s master’s degree. “He proceeded to paint the mural in the summer of ‘58 and into ’59. He had the help of four students,” Mays recalled.
Last January, the mural was moved from the school to the studio of local artist Phyllis Beard who will spend at least six months restoring the work.
Tony and Mary Lariccia of Boardman donated $25,000 to pay for the mural’s cleaning, repair and restoration. Mays headed up “The Save the Mural Campaign” and is still looking for help from alumni and friends to cover the costs of remounting the work. “We need to buy Lexguard or Plexiglas to protect it, which was not part of the original costs from our restoration project,” he said.

Tony Deniro, assistant superintendent for Small Business Affairs for Youngstown City Schools, said the architects designing the new building have selected a spot for the mural. “It will be placed in a hig- traffic area on an outside wall of the gymnasium that’s on the students’ way to the cafeteria,” he said.

Rayen Middle School will be built on the site of the present high school, which is scheduled for demolition this summer.
In addition to the mural restoration, Mays also is looking for contributions for another Rayen-related project. “Betsy Johnquest and her students are doing a book called the ‘Rayen Retrospective,’ so we’re trying to put some money down to reduce the costs of printing that book.” Anyone who contributes will get a free copy of the book.

Johnquest, whose grandmother, mother and uncles attended Rayen, called the book a “labor of love.” It will be completed this summer and released some time in the fall. She said she wants the “Rayen Retrospective” to reflect the journalistic spirit of William F. Maag Jr. [The Vindicator publisher was a Rayen graduate and is depicted in the mural] and the pioneering spirit of Rayen’s founder, Judge William Rayen.
“He [Rayen] wanted equal education for all children, and, in his will, it’s really neat how it’s written,” she said. “He says he endows this school to all the future children of Youngstown, his heirs. He considered the future children of Youngstown to be his heirs, regardless of race or creed, and he especially wanted to help the poor children . . . who otherwise would have no opportunity for an education.”
Rayen died in 1854 and donated $31,000 for a school. The original Rayen School opened in 1866.

If you are a Rayen alumnus and would like to share your story, visit the book’s Web site: www.therayenschool.com.