Raymond H. Reno

Thought of Ray this week when getting to visit the supposed “Othello Castle” in Cyprus. Not Hamlet, but still a reminder of a great professor and director!

Ray was my college English teacher nearly 40 years ago. He was creative, innovative, passionate, wonderfully well informed and caring. His enthusiasm for reading and thinking and doing was transmitted to his students and made real impact on our lives. I remember him and I am grateful.

My memories of Ray Reno go back over forty years to when we first worked together in the Summer School Office. While I admired his creative writing for the Summer School Newsletter, I was even more impressed by a lecture he gave on Shakespeare. He appeared to have complete command of the subject and his delivery was truly impressive. While I did not have an opportunity to take a regular course from him as a college student, I thoroughly enjoyed a short non-credit course he offered this...

Thank you to everyone who has expressed their sympathy to me and to my family. Several of you have asked if our dad had any particular charities to which he contributed.
There are two that come immediately to my mind:

Covenant House--Project Hope(helps homeless kids).
PO Box 731
Times Square Station
NY, NY 10108-0900

and

Plan International
155 Plan Way
Warrick R.I. 02886

I took Professor Reno's Poetry Drama class during my first semester at Georgetown in 1981. His dynamic presence and wonderful ability to teach amde this the most enjoayble and stimulating class. He was amazing when he used his booming voice to command the room and acting techniques to catch the class off guard and make us think in new ways. I continued to know him as a friend and always enjoyed his humor. He was a great teacher and a great man. I miss him.

Ray Reno was my English professor at Georgetown University in 1968. It was a difficult subject for me and he made me love the readings through his enthusiasm and insightful explanations. He was a short man but he had the most amazing voice that he could project far away. He did outdoor summer theater at Georgetown and energetically jumped around the stage in a toga, which got my mother more than once to comment about his acting ability and nice legs. He could rattle off quotations from...

I recall when Ray Reno did the Summer School Newsletter. All very practical information. Then he added the "Bug Column" to entertain and to get us to think. We all benefited.
Gerald Sullivan

First he was "the esteemed Professor, Dr. Reno" to me, the fabulously popular English Professor at Georgetown, back in the 1968 --- years....and in these later years, simply and affectionately he became "Ray". What a wonderful man, a treasure who always had a kind word, was willing to share his wisdom and insight, and had a ready array of humorous stories and comments. It was my privilege to have known him, my good fortune to have spent time with him (as he's my father's dear friend). It...

Ray was a great teacher, poet, actor and the best friend anyone could have. He was also the most learned person I ever met in forty years of University teaching.