Richard A. Wengenroth

Richard A. Wengenroth, artist, teacher and adventurer in New York City and Acra, NY died June 15 after complications from a fall. He was 93. A Brooklyn native, he circuitously became a widely exhibited artist and professor of art at Ohio Wesleyan University and Baruch College. He began drawing cartoons at age 5 and wrote comics for his high school paper. Skipping his graduation to hitchhike cross-country he considered a job at Walt Disney but joined the Army instead. On the GI Bill he attended Wittenburg University where he met and then married Esther Lou Weiford, won a Fulbright in Germany, got an MFA degree and teaching job at Ohio Wesleyan University. He established the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) Arts Program in New York for students across disciplines from 12 midwestern colleges. He later joined CUNY’s Baruch faculty from which he retired in 1991 as Chairman of the Art Department. In recent years, he created naturalist paintings and portraits of Abraham Lincoln and published a retrospective “Richard Wengenroth - The View at 90.” Predeceased by his wife Lou of 68 years in 2019, survivors include two daughters, Gretchen Wengenroth of Pacifica, CA., Raychel Wengenroth of Saugerties, NY, and grandson Miles Wittig of CA. Services will be private. Contributions can be made to hospice organizations across the world most in need. Arrangements were under the direction of the Seamon-Wilsey Funeral Home, Inc. Cor. of John & Lafayette Sts., Saugerties. Expressions of condolence may be shared with the Tribute Wall at SeamonWilseyFuneralHome.co  

 

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