The Renate Rewald Literary Arts Series at the Morgan Opera House

Renate Rewald (1914-95) was a beloved figure in the Aurora community. An emigré from Nazi Germany in 1933, she and her husband Walter, also an emigré, moved to the States in 1939 and for many years ran a dairy farm while raising a family in Venice Center. The Rewalds moved to Aurora in 1969. Walter died of a heart attack in 1981.

In her middle and later years, after graduating from Wells College and Cornell, Reni taught German briefly at Union Springs High School and then at Cayuga Community College. Upon retiring from full-time teaching, she continued to teach at Wells on a part-time basis, all the while leading an active life with her many friends, a life in which art and literature played a vital part.

A reading series in her name, especially one featuring the work of local writers, seemed an appropriate way to honor her humane spirit, her commitment to culture and, indeed, all the activities of the mind, and her irrepressible zest for living. The Renate Rewald Reading Series was founded in 1996.