Ray Page died last Thursday in Tucson, Arizona, from complications after a fall about a month ago. He was 85. Mr. Page and his wife, Kathryn, had lived in Arizona for more than 30 years.A native of Loami, he spent 17 years teaching history and coaching in Illinois high schools, including SHS in 1955-62. The highlight of his career was winning the state basketball championship in 1959. He also coached baseball, and his 1958 team won the district title.
In 1962 Mr. Page was elected state Superintendent of Public Instruction, a post he held for two terms, 1963-71. He then retired to Arizona. Survivors include his wife, son, daughter, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Services will be held in Springfield.
A full story appears in today's Springfield Journal-Register.
1959 State Champions
3 comments:
Will, do you or anyone know the where- abouts of Tom Cole, George Mathis, Jim Wieties or the rest of the SHS '59 team?
Mr. Page was a great coach and I enjoyed him as a US History teacher... I got the 1st sememster of US Hist. at SHS and learned one version of it, and then when I transferred to Clemson, SC for 2nd semester, I learned a whole new version of the "War between the States, and that great act of Yankee aggression"... :-)
Thanks for sharing the news Will.
Tom Downs
Tom,
Tom Cole died on Sep 22 2005, and the blog carried a story about his passing. See the entries for September 2005 in the Archives to the right.
The only '59s I know are Denny and Judy Wollan. I will see if they have any news of the old state champs.
Pretty amazing that they saw the war as Yankee aggression. The South attacked first at Fort Sumpter, and they also were the ones who insisted on keeping slaves. I guess you can tell which side my family took!
Will
Will,
Thank you again for sharing news so quickly with us. I'm very saddened with Mr. Page's passing...he, along with Mr. Croft, encouraged me to become a teacher. He was always "Mr." Page...we did respect that title. He always encouraged the positive approach to cheers...in '58, the first Elite 8 in Champaign, the CL squad & fans took lst & Jo A was Miss Elite...Mr. Page was as proud of us as he was of the boys to be there. Janet B.
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