Kent Reno

Kent Reno 1933 - 2011 Kent S. Reno, a 37-year resident of San Anselmo died Sunday, September 11, of complications from Parkinson's Disease. He was 78. Born and raised in San Francisco, Kent attended George Washington High School, where he excelled in track and field, winning the 880, as a junior and the mile, as a senior, in the city championships. He attended City College of San Francisco before joining the United States Air Force as an aviation cadet in 1953. He spent the next 20 years as a pilot. His flights comprised of a wide variety of activities that included typhoon penetrations in the South Pacific for Air Weather Services, a major USAF accident investigation in Brazil, air transport of nuclear weapons, and serving as both a Safety Officer and a Standardization Flight Examiner. While on active duty he graduated from Syracuse University and later attended the University of Southern California's School of Aerospace Safety and Management. Kent always had an interest in the arts and in his late thirties he traded his brushes, oils and canvas for a camera. Upon retiring from the Air Force he worked briefly as a photojournalist for Time magazine but gave it up upon accepting a job as Captain for Transamerica Airlines, which allowed him to return to the Bay Area after a couple of decades away. Intending to work as a part time freelance photographer while piloting cargo around the globe proved too hectic and time consuming for commercial photography assignments, so he instead opted to photograph on the go, at home and on the road, selling his images through stock photo agencies. His unique eye, a quirky sense of humor and his exceptional darkroom skills set him apart from other photographers. In 1973 he won the grand prize in the national Kodak Newspaper Snapshot Awards and throughout the years had numerous shows of his work in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1989 his critically acclaimed book Ground Time was published, which featured editorial images of people and events that had been taken during his travels to virtually every corner of the world. His wife, Fern, of 42 years and later his fianc, Kathleen Howard, as well as his daughter, Karen Esposito, preceded Kent in death. He is survived by his son, Jeffrey and his daughter, Jennifer and her two sons, Dylan and Sawyer Wilson. Kent is also survived by his grandson, Nick Esposito, his granddaughter, Mary Bevill and his great granddaughter, Dawna Paris, as well as another grandson, Ilja Krautscheid of Dusseldorf, Germany. At his request, there will be no service. He would prefer a raised glass of your favorite libation in his honor.