Bay Oaks bench memorializes late tennis player
Officials from Bay Oaks Recreational Campus are honoring the memory of one of the community’s founding fathers of tennis with a recently installed memorial bench.
The bench, which was installed within the perimeter of the north Bay Oaks tennis courts last Wednesday, will commemorate Ray Hierholzer, who died at the age of 89 on Feb. 6, 2014. The inscription on the bench reads “Ray Heirholzer Courts” in honor of the man who was devoted to the Bay Oaks tennis program and heralded within the tennis ranks on Fort Myers Beach and Frontier Park in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Hierholzer was known as the “Hat Man” and spent many years, including his retirement years, playing the sport he loved in his home town in Erie, Pa. and the rest of the year on the Beach. He had volunteered and coordinated the morning tennis program at Bay Oaks since its inception until earlier this year. A minor illness led to hospitalization in January 2014.
“Today, Bay Oaks lost a legend,” said Town of Fort Myers Beach Parks & Recreation Director Randy Norton at the time of Hierholzer’s passing.
For the past 35 years, Hierholzer lived in the Fort Myers area eight months out of the year and Erie for the other four months. In both regions, it was said “his presence became a beloved institution on the courts.”
Jay Musarra, who wrote an article in the Erie Times about Hierholzer and to inform of his passing, called him a tennis legend who grew up in Erie, graduated from East High School, was a decorated war veteran and worked in the post office there.
“His game of playing tennis was as steady as his personality. He had a great sense of humor and was quick to make a “pun” in anything you said. His witty sense of humor always livened up the action,” Mussara stated in the article. “Ray never hit hard but no matter what you hit him and no matter how hard you hit, it came back. Just like Ray he always came back. He seldom got ruffled, but occasionally if one of the players called out the wrong score, he would get annoyed and correct them immediately. He was the oldest member of the court at (age 89), but he was always as sharp as a tack.”
In his latter years, Hierholzer was known as the “Clipboard Man” because he was in charge of who played and when they played.
“He lived for the game of tennis. He was a fierce competitor but he played the game the way he lived his life. He was steady, consistent, unruffled, never flashy,” stated Mussara.