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Scholarship is music to EPHS students’ ears

EAST PALESTINE — It’s not often that two people share as many similarities as the late Bill and Laurel Rittenhouse.

The couple grew up in the same area of Cleveland, attended the same schools and even shared a passion for teaching music — which they did in the East Palestine school district over a span of 30 years.

Their three grown children are hoping to preserve their legacy and provide an opportunity for students at the same time through a new scholarship set up in their name.

The William and Laurel Rittenhouse Scholarship will help an East Palestine High School senior further a career in music or music education, beginning with the Class of 2018.

The scholarship will be available to a student each year after that. The amount of the scholarship is still being determined, the family said.

Don Rittenhouse said his parents’ love for music had a profound impact on thousands of students over the years.

“Over the years I have reconnected with many former classmates and others from the area who have expressed profound thanks to me for the gift of music they were given by mom and/or dad,” he said.

Bill and Laurel married in 1952 and moved to East Palestine in 1955.

The couple taught in the district between 1955 and 1985, with Bill serving as band director for both the marching and concert bands, and also teaching music appreciation.

He also gave instrumental lessons to fifth- and sixth-grade students at five local elementary schools and served as director of the junior high/middle school band, Don Rittenhouse said.

“He had incredible attention to detail and was extremely proud of the East Palestine concert bands. He was highly regarded by his peers in other areas schools, and both were well loved and respected by the hundreds of students they taught throughout their careers,” he said.

The bands traditionally received superior ratings in state contests in Columbus each year, he added.

Laurel was hired by the district in 1965 to teach music in the junior high. She taught in that capacity as well as directing the junior high/middle school choirs for more than 20 years.

“Music was simply a part of our lives ever since we were born,” Don Rittenhouse said. “As a young child I remember listening to virtually any kind of music — symphonies, musicals, jazz — you name it.”

He and his sisters Gail Rittenhouse and Nancy Wehrkamp also have fond memories of their mother teaching piano in the basement of their home.

At one point Laurel wrote a few gospel songs for a man who came to the house with ideas from time to time, Don Rittenhouse said.

“I can still hear her laugh when she would receive royalty checks from some of those songs, maybe $1.20 here and 85 cents there,” he said.

Laurel can also be credited with writing the alma mater for Baldwin Wallace College (now Baldwin Wallace University), which is where she and Bill both studied after high school.

Wehrkamp said her mother was very active at the state level of the Ohio Music Education Association and her father was a member of the American School Band Directors Association.

“I remember grandma telling the story of mom playing with a top when she was small. It created a tone and mom went over to the piano and played the note. This is when grandma learned that mom had perfect pitch,” Wehrkamp said.

Laurel and Bill were also long-time choir members and occasional soloists at the local Presbyterian Church.

Contributions to the scholarship fund are tax-deductible and can be made to the East Palestine City School District Treasurer’s office at 200 W. North Ave., East Palestine, Ohio 44413, attention William and Laurel Rittenhouse Music Scholarship.

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