Heather Young/Atascadero News Martha Rodriguez, left, of Lemoore sits with Atascadero residents Ray and Barbara Weymann, who gave her a book scholarship when she started school at the University of California Los Angeles.

Ray and Barbara Weymann of Atascadero give back to the world in which they live in a variety of ways — from volunteering for local organizations, advocating for climate change and other political ideas to giving book scholarships to a total of 12 students.

Ray said they began the book scholarship after attending his 50th high school reunion in 2002. He graduated from Washington High School, now called Washington Prep, in South Los Angeles in 1952.

“At that time Barbara and I decided we wanted to start a scholarship for that school,” Ray said, “[to] help defray the cost of college textbooks. We’ve had some really amazing students.”

To choose the student — or students — the Weymanns would sponsor for the first year of college, they received applications and interviewed the students and talked to their teachers. Since moving to Atascadero in 2003, several of Ray’s friends, who are also alumni of that school, help out with the interview process.

One student, Martha Rodriguez of Lemoore, visited the Weymanns on Monday to update them on her life. She said that through receiving the scholarship from them, she became friends with the couple.

Rodriguez graduated from high school in 2004 and went on to the University of California Los Angeles and graduated from there in 2008. She is now a police officer in Lemoore.

“It helped me out a lot because I was struggling a lot in my first year [financially],” Rodriguez said and added that she was able to talk to the Weymanns about things going on in her life and get advice.

Ray said that throughout the years they would often have a meal with the students when they would visit a city in which a student lived. Even after graduation, they have continued to stay in touch.

Their student, Ray recalled, was from Mexico and when he arrived he did not speak any English. When he graduated high school he was valedictorian and now works on Wall Street. Ray tutored him in calculus and physics.

“He was the first student to pass the calculus AP [exam] at his school,” Ray said.

Ray also tutored students both in L.A. and in Atascadero in calculus.

“I think I enjoyed [tutoring] as much as anything I did in astronomy,” Ray said.

Before giving any scholarships or tutoring, Ray and Barbara met while they were in college.

Ray was a year younger, Barbara said, and attended Cal Tech where he majored in astronomy in 1956. Barbara attended Pomona College and graduated in 1955 in math.

Barbara said Ray proposed to her the night before her college graduation and they married a week after Ray’s. She said friends who were dating set them up on a blind date.

“I thought he would think I was nerdy if I told him I was a math major, so I told him I was an art history major,” Barbara said. “He already knew I was a math major. He knew I was lying right off the bat!”

After they married, they moved to Princeton, N.J. where Ray received his Ph.D. in astrophysics. He finished the Ph.D. program in three-and-a-half years and they moved to Pasadena for Ray to finish his post-doctoral fellowship at Cal Tech.

“That was the first time I got to use the big telescope at Mt. Wilson Observatory,” Ray said.

When his post-doctoral work was complete, they moved to Tucson, Ariz., where Ray worked at the University of Arizona for two years, and then they went back to L.A. for a year while he worked at UCLA. They then returned to Tucson where he worked as a professor of astronomy and later became chairman of the department and director of the observatory.

Barbara said she worked with scientific aspects of computing throughout her working career.

“All of my jobs have been in computer programming,” Barbara said.

In 1973, Barbara said the Democratic Party in the city approached her to run for the Tucson City Council.

“Because I was very active in the League of Women Voters,” Barbara said and added that she had worked on several campaigns.

In Tucson, she said, the elections were partisan. She ran against two other candidates in the Democratic election and won. She then ran against the Republican incumbent and the Independent candidate and won the seat.

“There’d never been a woman on the council,” Barbara said. “I was the first woman ever on the Tucson City Council.”

“I wore out a pair of shoes going door-to-door,” Ray said.

One particular issue Barbara recalls while on the council is the police and firefighters went on strike at the same time.

“It was a terrible experience,” Barbara said. “It happened to be a period of time where this was happening all over the country.”

Barbara served on the council from 1973 to 1977 and said she was not re-elected because the council made a political “mistake to increase water rates.”

After Ray retired in 2002, which he said meant he only no longer received a paycheck, although he continued to go to his office every day, they looked into moving near one of their children.

“We wanted to be near one of our children,” Ray said, “in our ‘golden years.” Besides, when we visited we liked it here.”

Since moving to Atascadero, Barbara has been a volunteer for Atascadero Loaves & Fishes, doing data entry and the newsletter; was a moderator for the library book club; helped start Vision Atascadero; is active in the America Association of University Women; and is an observer for the League of Women Voters for the Nacimiento Water Project.

Ray has been active in some political campaigns, gives talks on climate change to the community and high school classes; and goes on long hikes.

Together, Ray said, they are getting into woodworking and have made furniture such as a bookcase and a workbench.