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Ray Commended for Charity
by Melanie King
Charity Ray wanted to work in the library. It was 1972, and Ray was a secretary to the Vice President of Academic Affairs, but she loved to read. She asked for a transfer and quietly moved into the library, all the while taking the library science classes required. So began her long employment with Mars Hill College as a librarian.
Ray has family roots here in Madison County that go back to the 1920's, and has lived here in Madison County pretty much her whole life.
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Charity Ray has worked for the college for the past 36 years and has lived within a few miles of Mars Hill College almost her entire life. Last year she was awarded the I. Ruth Martin Award.
The award is given to those who show outstanding commitment to others. A fellow staff member nominated Ray because of her "positive impact on her community." Ray regularly visits the retirement home near the campus, is actively involved in her church, and works to eliminate racial prejudices. Last summer Ray allowed a student to live with her so she would be able to fulfill graduation requirements.
Ray has family roots here in Madison County that go back to the 1920's, and has lived here in Madison County pretty much her whole life.
"I grew up here in Mars Hill, right where Ingles is down there. Well no, that was where I was born, I lived there until I was five."
Ray grew up with two sisters; her parents were custodians and worked for the local doctor's office, located where the gazebo is today. Her early years were spent in the area around the campus.
"When I lived here in Mars Hill we had lots of fun because down at Big Branch there, before they turned it, that was really a wading pond. And we had an Uncle that lived…he wasn't really our Uncle but we called him that…he had guineas and we would go out and look for the nests and bring him those guinea eggs."
Ray went to school in Madison County until high school, which she attended at Allen High in Asheville. Graduating, she started doing domestic work for the president of Mars Hill College.
Ray also spent a few years in New York. "I went up there on vacation to visit some relatives of mine and they said why don't you stay…. that was during the 60's when things weren't so good around here … when I came back home on vacation my father got sick, it was discovered that he had terminal cancer, so I stayed to help take care of him. And that's how I ended up at Mars Hill College."
Given the opportunity to get a job on campus by the program, New Careers, she became an assistant secretary to Vice President of Academic Affairs Richard Hoffman, but after a while found her real passion was in the library.
Richard Dillingham holds Charity Rays's parent's tea kettle in front of the fireplace at the Rural Life Museum.
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Today she works as the coordinator for the curriculum library and the education department.
Over her years here at Mars Hill College, she has made several contributions to her community. Ray and her family donated various heirlooms to the Rural Life Museum here on campus, including a teakettle dating back to at least 1928.
"The teakettle was given to my mother and my dad when they got married. And the person that gave them the teakettle - I think it was given to her when she got married -was Aunt Caroline. Aunt Caroline was a lover of coffee, and she said that when she comes to visit them she wanted to make sure they had something to brew her coffee in.
"We didn't want to lose it…we had several things handed down by the family, and we just didn't have a place to store all this stuff, so we thought well why not put it somewhere where other people could see it, so that's what we did. They also have a quilt that my grandmother made."
Ray works in Memorial Library. On the second floor she orders teaching material for faculty and staff. Quietly, she works in a room stacked with books.
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