Vernon Ray Kurtz who passed away at Ascension Via Christi Hospital, Manhattan, KS after a fall on October 23, 2023 will be buried at the Sumner cemetery near Alton, Kansas where his mother, Mattie Grace Lucky Kurtz, his father, Theodore Harold Kurtz, and his brother, Willis Harold Kurtz are buried.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Mary Jo, his sons: Quentin and Bryan (Susan); Grandchildren: John Kurtz, Rebecca Kurtz (Brian Clausen) Katie Bateman (Quentin), Maegan Svita (Sam), and Lauren Kurtz (Chris Cooke); Great grandchildren: Brynnley, Claire, and Molly Quinn Bateman.
Ray was born July 12, 1933 in rural Alton, Kansas. He attended Alton city grade school, Pleasant Valley one room grade school and Alton High School. After graduating from high school in 1951, he attended Fort Hays State College and earned a BS with a major in mathematics in 1955. During Ray’s four years at Fort Hays, he lived in a professor’s basement with 3 other young men. In addition to the friendship of these young men he had friendships with young men and women in the local Hays Methodist church and members of college academic and service clubs.
On June 15, 1955, he married his high school sweetheart Mary Jo Peterson at the Mt. Ayr Friends Church near Alton, Kansas.
His first teaching position was in 1955 teaching mathematics at Osborne High School. He was called into the Army in January 1957 and did basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and then was assigned to Pine Bluff Army Chemical Corps Arsenal in Arkansas where he was a member of the “Scientific and Professional Personnel.” After his time in the Army he enrolled at Fort Hays in 1958 to work on a master’s degree. After earning that degree he taught at Gorham High School and Plainville High School where he was able to take Saturday, summer and night graduate classes at Fort Hays. He saw the importance of earning college credits which led to a position at Fort Hays in 1963. It was from this Fort Hays position that he saw the necessity of a doctor’s degree if he were to have a career teaching in higher education. At that time, he moved his family from Hays to Lincoln, Nebraska where he earned his Doctor of Education degree in 1966. Ray returned to Fort Hays to continue a teaching position. In 1970 he was hired at Kansas State University in Manhattan as an assistant professor in the College of Education. During the next 30 years he had the opportunity to advance in rank and to achieve many professional accomplishments.
It was during a National Science Foundation grant project to improve Elementary Education Mathematics, teaching a group of Shawnee Mission Kansas School District Teachers, that he met a visiting headmaster from Leicester England who invited him and the teachers to visit his school. This invitation provided the idea for the leading groups of teachers on international trips. During the following years he took 21 groups of teachers on international travel classes. His wife Mary Jo always accompanied him on these group trips. After retirement he and Mary Jo were members of travel groups to Peru in 2004 and Egypt in 2008.
Ray was proud of being editor of The Kansas Association of Teachers of Mathematics Bulletin for 21years. This position put him in contact with K-12 teachers of mathematics throughout the entire state.
Ray enjoyed being active in church attendance and church leadership. He and Mary Jo were consistent attenders each Sunday at worship services and Sunday School classes -both as teachers and members. He held numerous church leadership positions at First United Methodist Church in Manhattan, including church Lay Leader in 1971.
Ray greatly enjoyed numerous hobbies and was active in several hobby clubs.
He always kept connected to his hometown of rural Alton in Osborne County and will be interred in the local cemetery near Alton.
The family will receive friends from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, October 29th, at the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, October 30th, at the First United Methodist Church, 612 Poyntz Avenue, Manhattan, KS.
Graveside services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, October 31st, at the Sumner Cemetery in Alton, KS.
Memorial contributions may be made to the First United Methodist Church. Contributions may be left in care of the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home, 1616 Poyntz Avenue, Manhattan, KS 66502.