Paige Rense, also known as Paige Rense Noland (May 4, 1929 – January 1, 2021) was an American writer and editor who served as editor-in-chief of '' Architectural Digest'' magazine from 1975 until 2010. She founded the Arthur Rense Prize poetry award. Rense also transformed the cooking magazine '' Bon Appétit'' into its modern format, was editor-in-chief of '' GEO'', and wrote a mystery novel, ''Manor House'' (Doubleday, 1997).

Early life

Born on May 4, 1929 and adopted as an infant by Lloyd R. Pashong (1895–1988), a Des Moines,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

, public-school custodian, and his wife, the former Margaret May Smith (1890–1983), she was originally known as Patty Lou Pashong and took the name ''Paige'' as a teenager. By 1940, the family was living at 1014 Douglas Avenue in Des Moines, the residence of her maternal grandmother, Martha Smith; her father then was working as a spinner in a wool mill. In the early 1940s she and her parents moved from Iowa, to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, California. After running away from home at age 15 to escape her abusive father, she worked as an usherette in movie theaters.

Career

A high-school dropout, Rense began her career in journalism in the mid-1950s, as a member of the editorial staff of the skin-diving magazine ''Water World'', where her future husband Arthur F. Rense was the managing editor. After leaving ''Water World'' she wrote a how-to beauty book and a novel, in addition to articles for ''

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'', and worked in publicity and advertising. In October 1970 Rense became associate editor of '' Architectural Digest''. Six months later she was named head of the magazine after the murder of its editor-in-chief, Bradley Little, and was appointed editor-in-chief in 1975. She held that position until 2010, having transformed the magazine, which was founded in 1920 as a trade journal, into "a bible for the design world and increasing its circulation to more than 850,000 from 50,000 during her tenure". As editor-in-chief, she focused the magazine on the work of architects, interior designers, and celebrity home highlights. She sought to hire well-known writers and award-winning photographers, eventually creating an international network and reach. When

Conde Nast Conde may refer to: Places United States * Conde, South Dakota, a city France * Condé-sur-l'Escaut (or simply 'Condé'), a commune Linguistic ''Conde'' is the Ibero-Romance form of "count" (Latin ''comitatus''). It may refer to: * Count ...

acquired the publication in 1993, a part of the deal was for Rense to remain editor-in-chief. At the time of her retirement, she was reported to be working on a book about the career of her late husband

Kenneth Noland Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was though ...

, the color field artist. Rense wrote ''Architectural Digest: Autobiography of a Magazine 1920–2010'', in October 2018, which tells the story of ''Architectural Digest'' during her tenure as editor.

Awards

Rense was the recipient of: *The Museum of Arts & Design Achievement Award (2006) *The American Academy of Achievement Award (2000) *The Pratt Institute Founder Awards (1997) *The Interior Design Hall of Fame Award (1985)

Personal life

Rense was married four times over. Her first marriage was to Richard F. Gardner, a Los Angeles advertising executive. They married on August 25, 1950 and later divorced.U.S. Public Records Index, 1950–1993, Volume 1, accessed on ancestry.com on January 18, 2017 She met David Thomas in the early 1950s while they were both working for the US Armed Forces Radio Service in Tokyo, Japan. They divorced in Baker, Florida, in 1956. By her third marriage to Arthur F. Rense (1916–1990), a sports journalist for the '' Los Angeles Daily News'' and the director of public relations for

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

's Summa Corporation, she had three stepsons. The couple were married twice, from February 22, 1958, until their divorce in March 1974 and from December 22, 1987, until Arthur Rense's death in 1990. In 1998, Rense established the triennial Arthur Rense Prize in poetry in honor of her late husband, an amateur poet; it is given by the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

. In 1994, she married color field painter

(1924–2010), and she had four stepchildren. Rense died on January 1, 2021, of heart disease.

References

External links