Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Mel Rashkis remembered for his service

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Staff

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

A few years back, some students from Rashkis Elementary School compiled the oral histories of some of this community’s leading lights. One of those recordings became a little more precious last weekend. Mel Rashkis died Saturday at UNC Hospitals. He was 90.

Years from now when people wonder about the couple for whom Rashkis Elementary is named, when they’re curious about the origin of Zora Rashkis’ doll collection on display at the school, there will be Mel’s recording to guide them.

At his funeral service on Monday at the Judea Reform Cemetery on Jones Ferry Road, more than 100 people turned out to honor Rashkis’ life, work and dedication to his community, including Congressman David Price, former educator Lillian Lee and Rashkis Elementary Principal Deshera Mack.

“It’s difficult, if not impossible, to talk about Mel without talking about Zora,” said Kim Hoke, executive director of the Public School Foundation. The two were a powerful force in the community — he an enterprising real estate entrepreneur and she an English teacher with a passion for education.

Hoke said there was so much energy and commitment in the two, it was hard to believe they were at an age when so many people start to take it easy. Among their many accomplishments together was the endowment of a teaching grant with the foundation for middle school language arts. And after the school shootings in Columbine, Colorado, Mel Rashkis stepped up to forge the Community Alliance for Student Success — an effort to better connect families and schools.

“He was deeply disturbed by Columbine and wanted to find ways to prevent that happening here,” said Hoke.

It’s just one example of Mel Rashkis’ energy and drive.

Writer Valarie Schwartz, who interviewed the couple many times and often lunched with them, said Mel Rashkis was driven by a genuine interest in understanding the lives of others.

“He just really deeply cared about people. He reached out to people in all walks of life,” she said. “Everyone he crossed paths with felt special and carried a new smile after he passed by.”
The Rashkis’ Coker Hills home was an open, welcoming place almost from the time they first arrived in the community.

The school that bears the family name was a special place of pride as well.

“Mel would take everybody to the school,” Schwartz said. After the couple moved to The Cedars, there were new folks to get to know. “Mel treated everyone equally — he knew the housekeepers at The Cedars by name and treated them with the same regard as the retirees, some of whom had known fabulous careers. He had to know every server by name and was interested in what they did when they weren’t working and the aspirations they held.”

2 thoughts on “Mel Rashkis remembered for his service”

  1. rita fidler dorn says:
    July 20, 2009 at 6:38 am

    was zora rashkis a guidance counselor/english teacher at frank l. wiley jr high school in cleveland heights, ohio in the 1950’s? i attended wiley jr and recall a zora rashkis; must be the same. just want to confirm this. did mel and zora move to nc from ohio? looking forward to someone’s reply.

  2. Marty Cassady says:
    July 22, 2009 at 10:27 am

    Google is your friend.

    http://www.case.edu/pubs/casemagazine/winter2005/aj/aj_educator.html

Comments are closed.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme