Sour Skittles, a necktie and a call for change: how New Paltz community is honoring a late student

A scattering of blue and green poker chips, inscribed in hand-drawn ink as tokens of “Boyz Nite.” A framed collage of plastic bandages arranged in the outline of a heart. An unopened pack of Marlboro golds. A six-pack of Pabst. A rugby ball awash in Sharpied signatures.

These are the tributes to a life left behind, a growing collection situated several feet back from a pond affectionately dubbed “the Gunk” on the SUNY New Paltz campus, where the school community is mourning the loss of 22-year-old Ray Rattray.

Rattray, a junior, was killed in a hit-and-run while he was walking home from class on Jan. 23.

The lifelong New Yorker traveled in many circles — as a philosophy major, in the school’s Educational Opportunities Program, which provides support for historically underserved student populations; and as a prop on the men’s rugby team.

Rattray’s teammate, 20-year-old Josh Holland-Weiss, said his life-of-the-party spirit was matched only by his tenacious work ethic.

Rattray’s last text to the team group chat read “grind never stop.”

“He truly just loved bettering himself, and I was so proud of him,” Holland-Weiss said.

More: SUNY New Paltz student killed in hit-and-run collision on Route 208

Rattray, Holland-Weiss said, took immense pride in the team’s successes and was eager to rejoice in his teammates’ personal milestones as well.

“Every celebration, every accomplishment, he was always the first to celebrate with you."

At a formal event celebrating the rugby team’s successful fall semester, Holland-Weiss said he found himself without a necktie.

“Before I even got the chance to ask, he was already asking the group chat if anyone needed a tie for the night,” Holland-Weiss said. “He was so quick to be generous.”

Even though he ended up ditching the tie for the evening, Rattray insisted upon him keeping it, Holland-Weiss said. “I was shocked by how eager he was to just be generous.”

Holland-Weiss wore that tie to Rattray’s memorial service.

Ray Rattray remembered: New Paltz rugby scrimmage team formed

Rattray’s impact spread beyond the current roster to the generations of New Paltz rugby players that came before him.

When news of his death reached the New Paltz Rugby Alumni Association, its members quickly mobilized to raise funds for Rattray’s family and enshrine his legacy in the club forever.

Raymond’s Rayders — the newly dubbed alumni scrimmage team — will face off against the current student team for annual rugby matches.

“We all looked forward each practice to seeing Raymond and how he would progress,” one alumnus wrote in a Facebook tribute. “He made us all feel important.”

Set to graduate in a year’s time, Rattray made little mention of his plans for beyond New Paltz.

Glenn Geher, a psychology professor and founder of New Paltz’s evolutionary studies program, recalled Rattray as a “brilliant young man.”

“Ray was the kind of student who truly cared about the content of his courses first and foremost,” Geher said. “Talking to him about the broader human experience was always a pleasure and I will miss doing so deeply.”

In a Facebook tribute posted a few days after Rattray’s passing, Geher described his twice-weekly run-ins with his former student: at the foot of a three-story stairwell, as both were running “just a minute late” to their respective classes.

“We would smile at each other at the bottom of the stairs and run as fast as we could to the third floor,” Geher said. “And smile, exchange pleasantries, and part ways.”

New Paltz hit-and-run happened on road used by students walking home

Rattray lived off campus – a regular rite of passage for many of the 257-acre campus’s 8,000 undergraduate students – and was on his way home from a Tuesday afternoon class shortly after 5 p.m. when he was struck by a passing vehicle along state Route 208, which borders the west end of campus.

The particular stretch of highway where Rattray was struck, less than half a mile long, is a popular route home for several dozen students living off-campus in that direction, but has no sidewalks or street lights.

The shoulder of the southbound lane is slightly wider and less overgrown with branches and greenery than that of the northbound lane. It’s what one student walking home Thursday evening said prompted them to choose it, even though it forced them to walk with their back to oncoming traffic.

Several thousand New Paltz students, parents and local residents are campaigning for this stretch to be named Ray’s Way. A Change.org petition that had amassed 5,206 signatures as of Wednesday is also calling on SUNY and elected officials to install sidewalks in high-traffic areas near the campus.

“I send my deepest thoughts and prayers during this difficult time to the friends, family, and everyone who had the honor of knowing Ray,” the petition reads. “This community is strong and we will get justice and peace for Ray.”

The vehicle involved in the crash, believed to be a dark-colored sedan, did not stop and the driver did not report the collision, according to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office. Rattray’s body was thrown about 20 feet from the roadside into a wooded area, where it was not discovered for another 20 hours, according to the sheriff’s office.

Results from an autopsy conducted Friday, Jan. 26, have not been made public. The sheriff’s office has asked for anyone who might have witnessed the crash or who has information about it to call 845-338-3640 or their confidential tip line at 845-340-3599.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Ray Rattray remembered: SUNY New Paltz student killed in hit-and-run