Raymond Varela Padilla

Dr. Raymond V. Padilla's life is an example of overcoming great adversity and poverty through education and following one's passion to the end in order to not just produce art but to be art. In his mid-20s, he decided not to become an artist who produces representational art but an artist who strives to be art, and in doing so he bet his future on learning how to master the art of the public good.

Raymond was born in a small village in Jalisco, Mexico, the eighth of sixteen children. His mother, who was Texan, brought him to the United States while he was still young. He was a migrant field worker from the tender age of five and picked fruits and vegetables in the fields from pecans in Texas to cherries in Michigan. He attended elementary school in Big Wells, Texas, junior high school in Austin, Texas, and Fremont High School in Michigan where he graduated first in his class as valedictorian in 1964. Raymond attended Oakland University in Michigan, but had to drop out for a semester to save money working as a butcher, when he was drafted into the United States Army and sent to Vietnam. During the Vietnam war, he served as a Movement Specialist, scheduling the movement of troops in and out of Vietnam, and was stationed at Cam Ranh Bay.

Upon returning from the Vietnam war, he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and graduated magna cum laude in 1970. While at the University of Michigan, Raymond met his future wife, Mary Joan from Royal Oak, Michigan, whom he married in 1971. Also while at Michigan, he and his friends lobbied for a position to be created within the university to recruit Hispanic students and provide the necessary assistance for their success. His efforts led to landing a position as the first Latino admissions counselor at the University of Michigan. He received a full scholarship from the Ford Foundation to attend the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated with his M.A. and Ph.D in Higher Education Administration.

Dr. Padilla began his academic career at Eastern Michigan University in 1977 as an associate professor and Director of Bilingual Bicultural Teacher Education Programs. From 1982 to 2001, Dr. Padilla spent two decades as a professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University where he was also a director of the Hispanic Research Institute and cofounder of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. He spent the last decade of his career at the University of Texas at San Antonio as a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Through his research and teaching, he has contributed to the fields of bilingual education, Chicana/o studies, higher education, and qualitative research methods. Dr. Padilla has written and/or edited 11 books and the results of his research have been presented at national and international conferences and appeared in numerous journals and electronic media.

During his later years and to come full circle with his younger years as a migrant farm worker, Dr. Padilla bought a ranch in South Texas with pecan trees where he enjoyed working outside with his tractor.

Besides strumming acoustic guitar in his spare time, Ray had a lifelong interest in computers and tinkering with electronics. He built his first radio by hand in the 1950s followed by the Altair 8800 microcomputer kit. He always kept up with the latest technology and in 2010 he created the first Mayan-based timekeeping app for the Apple iPhone, which later inspired his daughter to write iOS apps for banks. In the 1990s, he authored software for qualitative data analysis, which was used by universities and corporations around the world. He had a strong passion for learning and believed that books were the key to knowledge and advancement.

Dr. Padilla believed that success is achieved one student at a time and has helped many students along the way. He said "success has many dimensions" and has been an inspiration to barrio kids in the United States, members of his own family, lifelong friends, and beloved doctoral students that he mentored. He has been a positive encouraging force and inspiration to many to achieve far more than they ever believed possible. Dr. Padilla was a great strategist, innovator, and adventurer who pivoted his tough situation early in life to inspire and transform the community around him with the results producing social and institutional changes that materially affected people's lives. He believed the key to being art was doing the public good. The artist who is being art works with people and institutions as the artistic medium. And from his life experiences, he learned that the public good as art is a symphony that must be performed with people's lives as instruments, a poem that must be lived, and a sculpture that must come to life.

Raymond passed away after a long battle with the neurodegenerative disease multiple system atrophy. He is survived by his loving wife, Mary and daughter Brianda; his siblings Ofelia, Juan, Richard, Larry, Ralph, Rosemary, Danny, Irene, and Charlie; and his nieces and nephews located in Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and Washington.

A funeral service for Raymond will be held Friday, May 5, 2023 at 1:30 PM at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 2575 W. El Campo Grande, North Las Vegas, Nevada 89031. A visitation will occur Saturday, May 6, 2023 from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Palm Cheyenne Mortuary, 7400 West Cheyenne Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada 89129. A reception will occur Saturday, May 6, 2023 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at Palm Cheyenne Mortuary, 7400 West Cheyenne Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada 89129. A committal service will occur Monday, May 8, 2023 at 10:40 AM at Southern Nevada Veteran's Memorial Cemetery, 1900 Veteran's Memorial Drive, Boulder City, Nevada 89005.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.palmnorthwest.com for the Padilla family.