Orchard Cove resident celebrates 100th birthday
By Guest
Dr. Shirley Rayport poses with members of her family at her 100th birthday celebration held last week at Orchard Cove.
On Thursday, March 9, staff members and residents of Orchard Cove in Canton gathered in the ballroom for a very special birthday celebration in honor of Dr. Shirley Rayport — the senior living community’s newest centenarian.
The highlight of the event was a live performance by cellist Lev Mamuya and members of From the Top, America’s largest national platform celebrating young, classically trained musicians. (Shirley’s son, Jeffrey Rayport, is the group’s director emeritus.) The concert was followed by a reception, where guests sang Happy Birthday and enjoyed birthday cake.
An active member of the Orchard Cove community, Shirley is one of the co-chairs of the Orchard Cove Movie Committee and serves as a volunteer librarian. She’s also a published author, and some of her books — notably Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and the Mind-Brain Relationship: A New Perspective and A Community of Scholars: Recollections of the Early Years of the Medical College of Ohio — can be found on the library shelves at Orchard Cove.
The latter book, which features contributions from nearly 70 authors, details the first 25 years of the Medical College of Ohio at the University of Toledo, where Shirley worked alongside her husband, Dr. Mark Rayport, the founding chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery.
As a young violinist, Shirley had planned to major in music at Syracuse University, but instead she enrolled in medical school and became a doctor. In 1947, while working at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, a fellow resident introduced her to Dr. Mark Rayport, and six months later they were married. The duo collaborated throughout their lengthy medical careers, working at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for 10 years, he as a neurosurgeon and she as a neuropsychiatrist. After a sabbatical in Paris, they worked at a clinic in San Francisco before joining the Medical College of Ohio.
A mother of three and grandmother of five, Shirley is very proud of her family. “They’re very close, very caring, and very thoughtful,” she said.
In 2017, she moved to Orchard Cove at the suggestion of her son Jeffrey, and the move has proved quite beneficial. “The environment is very warm and welcoming, and everyone comments on that,” Shirley said. “Many people visit or stay in other such facilities, but nothing compares to the warmth and friendliness that exists here.”
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