Ray Schrick was born at home on the farm, delivered by his grandmother, on April 29, 1943, in Mooney Creek, Kansas. Ray, the fourth of seven children born to Raphael and Genevieve Schrick, passed away at home on August 25, 2024, enveloped by the love of his family.

Ray will be remembered for his sense of humor; for embellishing his “poor stories” gleaned from his adventures growing up on a farm without running water, attending first a one-room and then a two-room school house; for always being in a good mood; for being at home everywhere he went in the world; for always being the fun end of the table.

Ray lived in Tiburon and Mill Valley in the early 70s before settling in Novato in 1976.

Ray came to Marin in 1970 to teach at Novato High School after teaching junior high for four years in Pico Rivera, CA in East L.A. Ray taught mathematics at Novato High for 32 years and finished his career teaching Advanced Placement Calculus BC at Redwood High in Larkspur. In 1998, he was named a Marin County Golden Bell Teacher. Ray launched generations of future engineers, doctors, rocket scientists, physicists, mathematicians, and programmers – and at least one astronaut – from his calculus classroom. He was a funny, dynamic, energetic, and brilliant teacher who never hesitated to tie the real world with the theoretical long before it was the norm.

Ray experienced many firsts in his life: the first in his family to attend a four-year college/university; the first to earn his Master’s degree (Whittier); a member of the first cadre of mentor teachers in the Novato Unified School District; the first to fund and set-up a computer lab at Novato High where he also taught BASIC and PASCAL languages; the first to implement and teach Advanced Placement Calculus AB at Novato High from the early 1980’s until he left in 2002. Beyond the classroom, he and a business partner founded one of the earliest “wellness” “start-ups,” terms that didn’t exist when their successful company launched in the mid-1980s.

Ray was a gifted athlete. He was a multiple-year three-sport star at Atchison County Community High School in Effingham, Kansas, where he played football and basketball and ran track. As a senior in high school, he was named by the Topeka Capital-Journal to the All-Kansas Class A basketball team. Ray earned a scholarship to Kansas State Teacher’s College at Emporia, KS (now Emporia State) and played football for four years and basketball for one year while majoring in mathematics and minoring in chemistry. Post college, throughout his teaching career and well into retirement, Ray enjoyed skiing, golfing, flyfishing, sailing, and playing basketball and softball in leagues all over Marin.

Ray loved Schrick family reunions, vacations with the Lautze and Tomlin families, scramble golf with his siblings and their children, playing poker with his workout buddies from Rolling Hills Club, the Novato 4th of July parade, and, most of all, the University of Kansas basketball team.

Ray is survived by his wife of 33 years, Julianne; he was a wonderful and involved stepfather to Marcus Tomlin and later to Marcus’s wife, Paola, and a beloved RayPop to his grandchildren Christopher Tomlin and Joseph Tomlin. Christopher and Joseph filled a place in his heart that he didn’t know existed; their love, their hugs, and their pure adoration brought him unending joy in his later years.

His parents Raphael and Genevieve and two brothers, Kenneth and Richard, predeceased him. He is survived by his brother Larry Schrick, his sister Leta Rae LeFevre, his sister Marilyn Heelan and brother-inlaw Tom, his brother Randy Schrick and sister-in-law Mary, and his sister-in-law Mary Schrick. Additionally, he leaves behind his West Coast family of in-laws: Tempa Lautze, Abby and Karl Snyder, Duncan and Lori Lautze, and Sue Lautze.

The family is grateful for the care and support Ray received. We thank Dr. Sal Fazio and his nurse Vincent Cheung, Karena Goldfinger, and Ray’s team at By The Bay Health: Blake Knier, Jessica Garlock, and Chezalyn Amato. Special gratitude goes to Dr. Sue Lautze for all of the big and little things done for Ray in his last year, and to our Trusty Friends.

At Ray’s request, there will be no services. His ashes will be laid to rest in Mooney Creek, Kansas. As he said when choosing Corpus Christi cemetery, “I will be buried only one-and-a-half miles from the home place, the family farm. I can stand in the middle of the cemetery seeing Dad, my mother, my brothers, my cousinspeople who made this place better. I will be grateful to be a part of it.” We felt the loss of him long before he left us; yet, our long goodbye was too short.