In this edition of From the Archives, we’re focusing on one of Holderness School’s earliest students from my home island of Puerto Rico: Paul Washington Raymer, Jr. ’43. Also known as “Rico”, he was born in the capital of San Juan on 12 December 1925 and lived in Barrio Juan Domingo in Pueblo Viejo, Guaynabo. He was American but raised on the island as his father was an executive working with the Puerto Rico Railway Light & Power Company in San Juan. 

At the time Raymer grew up, Puerto Rico was undergoing many changes, especially with industrial commerce, and electricity was part of an increasingly expanding agenda of the local government. Since then, some things have remained the same while others have changed drastically. Take, for instance, Puerto Rican coffee. Café Alto Grande, traditionally known on

the island as the “preferred coffee of the Pope” or “the coffee of kings” continues to be a staple every morning in our household, and it looks like coffee from Puerto Rico made its way into Holderness way before our time here! In a 1968 letter from the school’s director of development to Raymer’s mother, he thanks her for always sending money for the school to set up flowers in Chapel every December 12 in memory of her son. He also mentions coffee. “Mr. Judge, who you will recall is our chaplain, has selected poinsettias for this occasion. He remembers you all quite well and speaks with considerable animation about the virtues of Puerto Rican coffee which Paul used to bring back to Holderness” (AR.22.1.1). One only wonders which coffee Raymer brought to campus!

Once at Holderness, it seems that Paul Raymer had some trouble adjusting to life in his second language, English. However, as our “first student instructor,” he flourished during his time at Holderness, assisting faculty member Dante Fiore in teaching his Spanish classes. Additionally, Raymer’s love of music was apparent to everyone who knew him. After Avery Rogers, the music director, was asked to serve in WWII, he instructed Paul how to conduct his responsibilities in case he left soon for war. This included the final commencement production of the Pirates of Penzance in 1943. In a document of recollections found in the school’s archives, Raymer’s late classmate, Charles K. Dodge, Jr., recalls:

“During Mr. Weld’s tenure as headmaster, brief prayers were said at morning assembly in the schoolhouse and in Livermore in the evening after dinner. A hymn was sung on both occasions and Paul or I were usually the accompanist after Mr. Rogers’ departure. Paul was but an average student, but here he was teaching Spanish and fulfilling the performance and conducting responsibilities of the music master at a time when the Armed Forces were claiming many of the Holderness faculty.”

Unfortunately, Raymer passed away in a tragic aircraft accident when the plane he was piloting collided with high-tension wires in Puerto Rico in 1947. His memory survives in one of
our beautiful stained-glass windows in the Chapel of the Holy Cross - a window his parents gave “in memory of a guy who passed his happiest years at Holderness”. It seems fitting that
this is reflected in the chosen subject to remember him: Saint Francis of Assisi and praying
angels below.