He served in the United States Navy and earned a Ph.D. in American history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
He was faculty advisor to Phi Alpha Theta, the honorary in history and with Donald B. Hoffmann helped to organize the society on a national basis.
Following service at Penn State, Rayback taught American history at the University of Saskatchewan in western Canada.
The half-completed work was expanded and finished by Jerome Mushkat, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Akron.
Another of Rayback's students was William H. Brackney, professor of Christian Thought and Ethics at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.