Although computers have been credited with reducing the need for paper, for retired teachers Jon and Diane Ray, the Internet has helped in their quest to collect paper--specifically old paper, known in the antiques business as ephemera. Their search for historically significant documents, photographs, postcards and illustrations spans the nation and even the world, but they operate the business largely from their homes in Maine and Florida.

Jon's interest in old papers is not surprising: He is a certified history teacher who still holds a part-time position at Lake Region High School, in North Brigton, Maine, where he has taught since 1972 and which the couple's daughter, Abby, AS 2006, attended. Officially retired for the past seven years, Jon maintains what he considers an ideal schedule. Through a job-sharing arrangement, he teaches the first and fourth quarters of the school year in Maine and spends the second and third quarters in Florida.

His talents as a teacher and the special programs he continues to run at Lake Region are what convinced the administration to keep him on at half time when he first proposed the arrangement. For example, he organizes an annual student-based Civil War re-enactment, which he initiated in 1995 as the first of its kind in the nation.

"Each year, we do a different battle in a 'webbing exercise' that involves just about everyone in the school," Jon says. "The band and chorus contribute music, theatre groups act out scenes and industrial arts classes make wooden muskets. Even health classes are involved, in researching Civil War-era medical practices."

The re-enactment, which takes place on a 26-acre farm near the school, has received national recognition, including articles in various Civil War magazines.

Diane, who retired from teaching home economics four years ago, is the office manager for the couple's business, Paper Chase. "It's a real partnership," Jon says, "and we have an ideal lifestyle. With the Internet, we can spend the winters in Florida, working several hours a day and doing what we want the rest of the time."

But, Paper Chase is more than just a way for the Rays to supplement their teachers' retirement pay. "It's really fun helping people find things that give them pleasure," Jon says. "We've provided many people with historic family items, which is always fun. One memorable one was finding a 1921 Saturday Evening Post cover for a man whose grandmother had posed for it. His grandmother had died, but he framed it for his grandfather. A year later, we found another for him to frame.

"Finding a signed Teddy Roosevelt letter in a box lot of paper was also a thrill," he says. "Another was providing the paper props--period calendars, magazines and things like that--for the movie The Whales of August, set off the Maine coast starring Lillian Gish and Bette Davis. Yet another was bringing Ted Williams key chains out of a warehouse, where they had been stored since 1954, and offering them to the public as the exclusive agent."

In addition to selling from their home and on the Internet through auction houses such as eBay, the Rays also offer merchandise at two shops, where they specialize in Maine memorabilia, including advertisements, posters and magazine covers.

Daughter Abby is now majoring in communication at UD. Although unsure of the exact direction her career will take, Abby was very excited about the opportunity to work in the University's TV studio as a freshman.

"Right now, she's just trying to get a taste for the field and what it has to offer. Getting to work with upperclassmen through the studio has been a great learning experience for her," Diane says.