Paul Trensky

Paul Trensky, retired professor of Russian literature and comparative drama at Fordham University, died in his sleep on March 10, 2013 in his New Paltz, NY, home, 2 weeks shy of his 84th birthday. Since 2007, he divided his time equally between New York and Prague. He was born on March 24, 1929 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. His father was Jewish (he perished at Auschwitz), so after the Nuremberg laws of 1935, his parents "divorced" to save the children and the business, a thriving fashion house. During the war Paul helped his mother and was able to finish high school only after the war. Always thirsting for knowledge, and realizing that life under the Communists will be as oppressive as under the Nazis, he emigrated in 1956, and after one year at Vienna University, earned his Ph.D. in Russian literature at Harvard in 1962. Paul joined Fordham University in 1964 and retired as bene merenti in 2008. Always deeply interested in Czech drama and theater, he wrote "Czech Drama since World War" (1978). Since 1989, when after 20 years he was finally again able to travel to Czechoslovakia, he became a major contributor to Czech theater journals on New York, Berlin, and Czech theater and cultural topics, as well as other major productions he attended in other countries. In 1991 his "The Fiction of Josef Skvorecky" was published and in 1994, it was translated into Czech. During 1990-1993, he was Editor-in-Chief of Czechoslovak and Central European Journal, published by SVU, the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. In 1993, his reports-essays on the Salzburg Festspiele and since 2001 the Berliner Theatertreffen, were published annually in the Prague journal SaD = Svet a divadlo (The World and Theater). Paul's writing greatly benefited from, and showcased his love for and appreciation of drama and theater, as well as his knowledge, not to mention the additional research he immersed himself in so as to present as detailed and informed picture of the productions as possible to the Czech theater public. Paul was naturally very smart; he had encyclopedic knowledge, especially in drama and theater; was a connoisseur of jazz, classical, and 20th century music; and he followed political events with an unending zeal. If he had a legal dispute, he spent hours in law libraries, and was frequently complimented by judges on his incisive briefs. After his New Paltz house burned down in 1988, he argued for hours with his builder and architect, until they humbly acknowledged that his ideas to solve certain issues were superior to theirs. With the advent of the internet, his intellectual curiosity and need to know were benefiting daily. Paul played tennis, was an avid skier, and greatly enjoyed traveling as well as long hikes in the Mohonk vicinity. In 1979, he started a soccer league in his adopted village, New Paltz, and spent countless hours and amounts of money on coaching his son in soccer, tennis, and skiing. His bad knees and spinal stenosis put an end to many of his physical activities; but, he would get up at 3 a.m. to watch the Olympics, major tennis, soccer, and hockey matches. He suffered a mild TIA in summer 2006, and had several stents implanted, so at least he picked up swimming, 3 times a week. His first marriage to Anne Trensky ended in divorce in 1976. He is survived by his wife, Misha Harnick, with whom he lived since that time until they got married in 1985, a son from his first marriage, Michael of Connecticut, and two granddaughters. His brother, Peter Danes, who settled in New York before Paul, died in 2001. He liked to quip that he is not always the easiest person to have around, but he was a very very good man. He is sorely missed for his loving kindness, his all-encompassing thirst for knowledge, his intellect, his unending interest in life in general, and all things cultural and political in particular. Donations in his memory can be made to www.thewoostergroup.org and www.lamama.org.