Mrs. Zora Rose Rashkis, age 98, a resident of the Cedars at Chapel Hill died Tuesday morning at the Dubose Health Care Center.
Born October 8, 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio, Zora was the daughter of the late Max and Bess Goldman Rose. She was always a very outgoing person, very theatrical and directed plays in the Cleveland Playhouse, in some of which she acted. She loved the outside, and enjoyed hiking, swimming and being a camp counselor.
Following her graduation from high school, she attended Western Reserve University, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism. She also received a Master’s degree in English from Western Reserve.
She began her career as a teacher at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where she taught for two years. She then taught at John Hay High School for four years and began a Drama Club there. Her next teaching position was at Cleveland Heights High School, where she taught for three years, then moving on to Wiley Junior High School, where she was assistant prinicipal and dean of women for eight years.
When she was at John Hay High School, Zora was asked to write and direct their Christmas event, wher she met her first husband, Herb Mendelsohn, who she married in 1940. Following his unexpected death, she began teaching full time again, teaching a total of 17 years in Ohio, being chosen Teacher of the Year twice.
In the late ‘40s, she met her second husband, Melvin Rashkis, who she married in 1950. The family moved to Durham in 1962, where they lived briefly, moving to Chapel Hill the next year. She taught at Northern High School for the first year she moved to the area, then at Phillips for three years, and thirteen years at Culbreth Junior High School, retiring in July of 1979, when she was honored with a party given by the residents of Chapel Hill.
Zora did many things to teach and help her students, including taking a group of them to Greece to travel Odysseus’ trail, sending back daily journals to the Chapel Hill Newspaper for publication, and taking a group to Kenya for study and hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro. She had all of her parents and their children over once a semester for dinner, helping the parents meet for the first time in a warm and happy environment. She again was chosen Teacher of the Year in North Carolina.
Zora received awards not only from the schools, but she and her husband Mel received awards from the community, the realtors, the chamber of commerce, the United Way, and ultimately from the new elementary school in Meadowmont that was named for them. It was a recognition that both of them deserved for the hours and hours of volunteering their time, money and ideas for to helping the public Schools in Chapel Hill.
She was a member of Judea Reform Congregation, where she had served as President of the Congregation.
Surviving are her daughter, Jill Goldman and husband, Alan of Raleigh; her son, Peter Rashkis of Chapel Hill; six grandchildren, Guinevere, Ren, Isabella, Brian, Betsy, and Melissa, and eight great-grandchildren. Mel died November 8, 2008. Zora was the last survivor in a family of six children.
Graveside funeral services will be held Thursday at 11:00 a.m. at Judea Reform Congregation Cemetery, Rabbi John Friedman officiating. (directions to cem: judeareform.org
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Chapel Hill Carrboro Public School Foundation, P.O. Box 877, Carrboro, North Carolina, 27510 (Note: Rashkis Chair) or to Judea Reform Congregation, 1933 West Cornwallis Road, Durham, North Carolina 27705.
Howerton & Bryan Funeral Home is assisting the Rashkis family. Online condolences may be submitted to www.howertonbryan.com, select obituaries.
