CaMPUS - University of Arkansas at Monticello

One of Ray’s fondest memories
came in the late 1980s when his
debate team defeated the University of
Southern California at a tournament
in Louisiana. “That’s when we really
knew our students could compete with
anyone,” Ray says.
Ray has never had a student who
couldn’t complete a speech, but came
close a few times. Before a night class
in the Memorial Classroom Building,
Ray approached a nervous student
standing in the hall outside the classroom.
She had her speech and visual
aids, but wouldn’t leave the hallway.
“She said ‘Mr. Ray, I have to talk to
you,’” he says. “I asked her what the
problem was and she said she couldn’t
do the speech. I asked her what she
meant and she said she just couldn’t
do it. I told her to let me start the class
and I’d come back and talk to her.”
When Ray returned, he asked the
reluctant student if she had prepared
for the speech. “She said she had,” says
Ray. “I asked to see her visual aids
and told her she’d done a marvelous
job. I said you know, I really hate to
see you walk away from here tonight.
This will always be on your mind that
you walked away from this. If you give
yourself a chance, I think you can be
more successful than you ever thought
you could be. Why don’t you just go
in the room and let’s try it. Let’s see
what happens.”
The student, Marianne Smith Hardcastle,
went on to become a Pi Kappa
Delta regional debate champion and is
a successful attorney in Tulsa.
“For me, the joy I’ve gotten from
teaching has always been about our
students and the successes they’ve
had,” says Ray. “It’s going to be difficult
to walk away from something I
have truly loved.”
Summer 2012 15