In Ray’s honor, The Raymond Ranellucci ’89 Emerging Leader Scholarship has been established. Ray’s scholarship funds in perpetuity the attendance of a newly-initiated Brother, who we believe has the greatest potential to make the biggest impact on the House, in the prestigious Delta Upsilon Emerging Leaders Experience. This annual, week-long event held at Williams College, DU’s founding location, coaches a promising young guy how to make a difference in the House through developing his leadership skills and confidence in his talents.
Ray passed away in June 2011. We had a nice tribute to him at Foxwoods later that year. Since then, we’ve established a perpetual scholarship in his name as part of our comeback, for a young Syracuse DU guy like Ray back in the day, feels right. As you know, being part of the DU return would’ve been right up Ray’s alley, giving a boost to a cub Brother was what he was all about.
When you formally remember a guy who’s passed, it means that you’ve carried something about him with you, that he has left some mark of who he was on who you are.
Everyone has enthusiasm. Some for 30 seconds, others 30 minutes, fewer for 30 days – but it’s the guy who has enthusiasm for 30 years – that’s the guy who makes a real difference in others for life. That was Ray – enthusiasm for 30+ years. There wasn’t a guy better at stirring up the Brotherhood pot in a good way. His enthusiasm was contagious.
When Ray was Social Chairman in Spring 1987, we had more sorority weekday wake-ups with the likes of DG, Kappa and Tri Delt than any other semester, and all were packed as Ray sold each like a Saturday night open party. Everything came alive in his company; he cast positive energy about him so that to be with him was to feel on the move. Of course, you’re only like this if you care about each and every guy in the House.
To remember Ray, an event was held on October 30, 2015 that was attended by 100 DU Brothers. The event occurred at O’Flanagan’s in NYC and was a culmination of a fundraising effort to name a scholarship in connection with our comeback in Ray’s name. We unveiled the long lost mud wrestling video tape from the late 80s that featured Ray and the guys. Mark Portier MC’d the event.
The October 2015 event in New York City is a testament to our enduring strength. One hundred Brothers gathered to celebrate Ray’s life and establish a scholarship in his memory. The walls of the venue shook when the Brothers chanted Ray’s name upon presentment of his wife, just like the walls shook in 711’s Chapter Room when the Brotherhood belted out Wherever You Find Two Rivers back in the day. A plaque commemorating The Ray Event has been fabricated. It will be hung in our new House when we get one, the very first day we move in. The power remains.
To permanently endow Ray’s scholarship, Brothers needed to reach a total contribution of $25,000. In the end, over fifty brothers donated $43,000 to Ray’s scholarship, busting up the endowment goal thermometer into pieces at 172% of the original goal. Overachieving our goal is something Ray would have liked.