Ray Raineri 2009

Description:
Photo of Raymond L. Raineri giving presentation to students at Oakland Technical High School, 4351 Broadway, Temescal district, Oakland Calif.

Date of Document:
16-Jan-09

Document Author:
Unknown

Geographic Location:
4351 Broadway, Oakland Calif.

Context:
Veteran collector, walking tour leader, and local history activist, Oakland native Raymond Ray Raineri (1938-2015) grew up in the heavily Italian American Temescal district of North Oakland. Graduating in 1957 from Oakland Technical High School, he went on to study at San Francisco State, where he earned a BA in Sociology. Ray then worked for the next 30 years for the Alameda County probation department. After retirement, Ray devoted himself to his love of local history -- with a special focus on North Oakland and the richness of the Italian American community for which it was known. He curated or co-curated numerous local history exhibits at the Oakland History Room of the Oakland Public Library, and elsewhere. For several years he led the popular Oakland Heritahe Alliance (OHA)-sponsored summer walking tours of Temescal. His articles have appeared in local newspapers, and he co-authored the publication, A Walk Through Temescal, the walking tour guide co-published by Shared Ground and OHA, in 1997. He gave numerous presentations on North Oakland s history, at Oakland Tech, the Colombo Club, as part of OHA s lecture series, and elsewhere. Ray amassed what might have been the largest collection anywhere of historical photographs of Temescal, which he generously shared with just about anyone who asked, including organizations such as the OaklandNorth news website, Temescal-based Shared Ground, the East Bay Hills project, the Oakland History Room, and the Oakland Tech PTSA. Ray s expertise ranged from the Key System and early public transit in Oakland; to the once-vibrant amusement park, Idora Park; to the Oakland Oaks baseball team; to the city s Italian American legacy. In each case, Ray brought his unique style to the stories he told, one that combined historical fact with personal anecdote that only someone who lived it could provide.