To the editor:

It was only destiny that Ray Wilbur be named to the Kansas Teachers’ Hall of Fame (Journal-World, April 4). For a man who has given his adult life to the betterment of young people, Dr. Wilbur is, indeed, a hero. While I was never fortunate enough to have him as a teacher when I attended Lawrence High School, my older brother had him in class. Michael told me that Dr. Wilbur was a master at getting all the students involved and inspiring them to greatness.

And he hasn’t stopped teaching and helping others since his retirement from LHS. In addition to teaching at Bishop Seabury, Dr. Wilbur, along with his wife, Marian, has been a beacon of hope in the community with his volunteer efforts at such deserving organizations as Meals on Wheels and Audio-Reader.

I’ve felt honored to know this humble man for the past 22 years, and fully realize just how passionate he feels about teaching, this community and his family. Roberto Clemente, my first childhood hero and the late baseball Hall of Famer, once said: “Any time you have the opportunity to accomplish something for somebody who comes behind you and you don’t do it, you are wasting your time on this Earth.”

Dr. Wilbur, a sports buff who has visited just about every Hall of Fame there is, lives these words every day of his life. And like Clemente, whose nickname was “The Great One,” Dr. Wilbur will now have a Hall of Fame to call his own. He’s certainly one of the great ones this community has ever known.

David Garfield,

Lawrence