On September 5, 2009 Ray Starrett passed on from his labor to his reward. In his ninety-two years he outlived his wife Ruth by ten years and married his college sweetheart, Helen.
Ray and I were related because he was my first instrumental music teacher, starting to teach at Jonathan Alder High School and the Plain City Schools in the fall of 1960. I was an enthusiastic ten year old, who had gotten a head start on training by playing bugle the previous summer. Mr. Starrett was glad to have a good student among his fifth graders.
By the time I got into my second year in high school, I had moved into first chair of the trumpet section. We played so many different things in school; show tunes, concertos, marches, dixieland jazz. Under Mr. Starrett’s guidance I absorbed everything musical.
During my senior year I borrowed his Bach Stradivarius trumpet to play the Trumpeter’s Lullaby. I had lost my horn and he trusted me to use his.
We renewed our friendship in 1988 when I was invited to perform at Jonathan Alder. I was glad to show him the Severinsen-Akright Bel Canto trumpet that I had recently purchased; my first good horn since the Bach Stradivarius.
We remained friends through thick and thin, calling each other several times during each year. In 2007 I spend a couple of days with him at his vacation home in Florida, where we went to the movies and went shopping for flowers. That summer he celebrated his ninetieth birthday with his family.
Prompted by a call from his family I went by the house in July, 2009. He was weak but still able to to converse with me. We told each other that we loved each other. I called in August, expecting to hear that he had passed, and he answered the phone.
I loved Ray Starrett with all my heart. He was a good man and he was proud of me.
