Date of Birth:
Monday, September 23, 1935
Date of Death:
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Age:
87 years old

Kathryn Rayburn

Kathryn Chera Rayburn died November 26^th, 2022 at Season’s Hospice Home in Rochester.

She was born September 23, 1935, in Durand, Wisconsin, the fourth child of John Alexander Rayburn, Jr., and Ethel Jaquish Rayburn. She attended elementary school and the first two years of high school at St. Mary’s and the last two at Durand High School, graduating in 1953. After completing her freshman year at the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota, she transferred to Wisconsin State University at Eau Claire where she majored in English and minored in French and speech. She earned her B.S. Degree in Secondary Education in 1957 and taught for six years in Wisconsin before moving to Minnesota in 1963 – two years in Manitowoc and four years in Muskego, a suburb of Milwaukee. During the years she taught at John Marshall High School (1963-1966), she earned her Master’s Degree, awarded in 1966 after her three years of two semesters each commuting between Rochester and Eau Claire and three sessions of summer school. In the fall of 1965, she bought a home in Rochester, and her parents and a sister and nephew moved from Durand to live with her. In 1966, she helped to open Mayo High School, and after 30 years there she retired in June of 1996.

An active member of the Rochester Education Association, Miss Rayburn was asked by REA leaders to allow her name to be placed before Gov. Wendell Anderson in nomination for appointment to the first Minnesota Board of Teaching (first a commission, not a licensing board). This state agency, established by law in 1973, was charged with the responsibility to establish teachers in Minnesota. The governor did appoint Miss Rayburn to this agency, and she was elected by fellow board members to serve as chairman. She served out her first term and was then appointed by Gov. Rudy Perpich to a second term. She chaired the board in its first five years, and, as a member of the Executive Board, continued to help lead the agency until the expiration of her second term.

As an officer of the Minnesota Board of Teaching, she traveled to several other states and to Washington, D.C., to learn from other leaders in education and to serve as a resource person, sharing “the Minnesota experience” with educators, legislators, and interested members of the public at large. She also participated in the development of NASPEP (The National Association of Standards and Practices for the Education Profession), serving for several years as an elected official of this forerunner of the current National Licensing and Practices Board.

Other professional activities included: Past member and chairman of several REA negotiation teams, Past member and chairman of District 535 Continuing Education Committee, Past member of the Winona State University student teacher advisory council, Past member and chairman of the local Council of Teachers of English, Delegate to two National Council of Teachers of English conventions (Cleveland and Boston), Delegate to the National Education Association convention in Detroit, Past chairman of the Rochester Education Association TEPS and of the SE Minnesota TEPS Committees (Teacher Education and Professional Standards), Past commissioner on the Minnesota Education Association Teacher Education and Professional Standards Commission, Past chairman of a two-year task force for the MEA* on Teacher Evaluation and Performance Criteria, Consultant to Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Publishing Company on a series of English language and writing textbooks for grades 9-12, Training for the NCA (North Central Association) and service on teams for the evaluation and accreditation of the Minnesota high schools, Training for and service on the National Education Association’s NCATE teams (National Commission for the Accreditation of Teacher Education) and service on teams for the evaluation and accreditation of teacher education programs at colleges and universities.

Throughout the years Miss Rayburn’s service was recognize by her peers, and she has received multiple awards from the local, state and national education associations. In addition, she was one of several individuals acknowledged and celebrated by the Rochester YWCA as a “Woman of Achievement.” (In 1981 the YWCA began the practice of publicly honoring selected community women for their excellence in performance – women who had achieved success in developing their full potential in outstanding leadership qualities and in making significant contributions to their field of endeavor (business, profession, community.) Miss Rayburn was chosen for this honor in 1983.)

A founding member of Rochester’s Pax Christi Catholic Parish, Miss Rayburn was elected to the first parish council there and also served for many years as lector at liturgical services as well as director of the lector ministry. The example set by her parents and the faith she shared with them prompted her to try to live a life that would help others. This she did to the best of her ability.

She justifiable pride in her recognized professional achievements and in her many years of work on the development of district English and Core Program curricula, but her primary focus was always the classroom. She cared deeply about her students and sought to instill in them her own love of learning and a genuine concern about the quality of their own work, hoping that they would, throughout their lives, experience that special joy that comes from broadening literary interests; from improving proficiency in grammar, diction, and composition; and from exploring questions about human existence and embracing the challenge of finding meaning in each human life. Her lifetime studies will no doubt continue in the next phase of the human experience.

Miss Rayburn was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Dr. John Rayburn, sister Glorieux Dougherty, as well as her nephews C. Patrick Shaw and Joseph Stafford, and her niece Marie Kruger. She is survived by her sister Marie Stafford, nephew D. Patrick Dougherty (Lauren), great nephew Mike Bell (Natalie), and great nieces Cassie Zwifelhofer (Jed), Michaela Heinrich (Shane), Shannon Clark (Richard), and Melissa Wencl (Louis). According to her wishes, a funeral Mass will not be celebrated in Rochester. The body has been cremated, and the ashes will be taken to Durand, Wisconsin, where they will be interred in the cemetery at her old home parish of St. Mary of the Assumption. A private Catholic burial service will be held there, where parents, grandparents, brother, sister and many other relatives are buried. Requiescat in pace (Rest in peace).