Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Robert Martin RENO
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) - Wednesday, November 18, 1998
Deceased Name: ROBERT M. RENO FAMILY CAME FIRST, BUT HE MIXED BUSINESS, PLEASURE WITH GUSTO
Robert M. Reno was somewhat older than the typical student when he started college at Duquesne University after World War II.
He had served in Gen. George Patton's Third Army in Europe, was going to college on the GI Bill and living at home in Shaler.
But being a gregarious personality, Mr. Reno didn't want to miss out on fraternity life. So he and some of his friends started a social club geared toward men like themselves.
''We called it the Bachelors' Club,'' said Glenn Miller of O'Hara, a friend of Mr. Reno's for 52 years and best man at his wedding in 1955.
The club met off campus at Dutch Henry's, a Downtown restaurant, enlisted a priest to be its sponsor and later became the Alpha Epsilon Fraternity at Duquesne.
''It was a lot of fun, drinking beer and playing the piano,'' Miller said. It wasn't the only club that Mr. Reno, a hard-working extrovert, helped to found. In 1951, he and his father, Samuel M. Reno, started the Elfinwild Lions Club in Shaler.
''Both had been attending the Lions Club in Etna and decided to form a chapter in Shaler,'' said Mr. Reno's daughter, M. Lynn Reno of Ross.
Mr. Reno, who throughout his life brought robust enthusiasm to his work as well as to his social life, died Sunday of complications following a stroke at UPMC Passavant. He was 72 and lived in Shaler with his wife of 43 years, Ann Whitcomb Reno. They raised three children.
Mr. Reno was born in Minnesota and moved to Shaler in 1929. As a young man, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. In 1950, he graduated from Duquesne with a degree in business administration. He worked two jobs for most of his life.
For 40 years, he was an institutional food broker, selling for companies including H.J. Heinz Co., Monarch Foods and Concept Foods.
His second job was with The Pittsburgh Press, where he started as a youth delivering newspapers and worked as an independent dealer until about 1991, a year before the newspaper closed. He was affiliated with the paper for 53 years.
''He was the hardest-working person I have ever met,'' his daughter said. ''He was home for dinner at 5 p.m. and then would collect from the newspaper boys in the evening. He was home to tuck us in,'' Lynn Reno recalled.
She said his children delivered the newspaper comics or just tagged along with their father.
When Lynn Reno was in high school, she said, her entire family worked on the stage crew for Glenshaw Players Theater Group, which performed musicals such as ''Fiddler on the Roof.''
''When the chorus would sing, he would chime in, singing from behind the stage,'' she said.
Her father also belonged to the Amen Corner and loved to attend Duquesne University basketball games.
When the Renos went on vacation as a family, they all piled into a station wagon and Mr. Reno drove them all over the country, to see the sights.
''We saw 42 of the 50 states,'' Lynn Reno said. ''He always detoured through Minnesota to see his (maternal) grandmother.''
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Reno is survived by his wife, Ann Whitcomb Reno; another daughter, Ruth A. Reno of Beaver; a son, Daniel M. Reno of Shaler; two sisters, Joanne Reno Linzey of Fremont, Calif., and Mary Lou Breiter of Mobile, Ala.; and two grandsons.
A Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. today in St. Mary Church, 2510 Middle Road, Hampton. Interment will be at Assumption Cemetery, Hampton.
| HOME | EMAIL | SURNAMES |
Return to The Pennocks of Primitive Hall website.
The information in this database may contain errors. If you find any questionable data, or if you have something to add my findings, please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on the "E-MAIL" link above. Thank you!
Page built by Gedpage Version 2.21 ©2009 on 07 July 2020