Obituary of Joseph Francis Renahan

Joseph Francis Renahan, 95, of Haddonfield, New Jersey, died peacefully on July 6, 2024.  Born in Wilkes Barre, Joe grew up in the Bronx with his widowed mother, Adelaide, and adult brother, Jim.  He went to Regis High School in Manhattan, and cherished its academic rigor, honesty and discipline.  The Jesuit principles of service, sharing and generosity marked his life.

He was awarded a full scholarship to Manhattan College, where he studied Romance Languages.  He was valedictorian of his graduating class in 1951.

Joe attended graduate school in Spanish Literature at Fordham University, where he was captivated by the confident intelligence of a classmate, Elizabeth Mary Seifert.  They were married in 1951, and Joe joined the administrative staff of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.  After eventually conceding that life with several babies in a bachelor’s fifth-floor walkup could be challenging for Elizabeth, Joe moved his family to Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.

He received a master’s degree in education from Yeshiva University in 1960.  Certified to teach French, Spanish, Italian and English, he began teaching the first two at Lakewood Junior High School in New Jersey.  He quickly moved to Lakewood High School and became chair of the foreign language department.  As he continued his graduate work in Romance language philology and medieval Spanish and French literature, he maintained a keen interest in the methodology of teaching.

Joe went to West Virginia University in the summer of 1964 for an NDEA Institute for high school teachers of French.  A year later, he returned to Morgantown to teach at the university.  Over the next three decades, he devoted himself to teaching at WVU.  While he focused on Golden Age comparative theater and the histories of the French and Spanish language, over the years he taught courses in Spanish and French literature and linguistics, Foreign Language in Translation, pedagogy, Italian, humanities, and teaching methods.  He was passionate about the arts and humanities, and eager to engage students at all levels.  He also responded to all requests for help from his colleagues and the university, because he cared deeply about the educational welfare of his students and the Foreign Language Department. He conducted Humanities tours in Europe and language-learning tours to France, Spain and Italy.  He led student trips to the opera, sat on doctoral committees at the School of Music and directed and participated in colloquiums on Modern Literature and Film.  He was the coordinator of the West Virginia Collaborative of the Academic Alliance, to help colleges and secondary schools to work together to promote and improve the study of foreign languages.

Joe combined an extraordinary breadth of interests with an enthusiasm for imparting knowledge. His students benefited from his culturally rich worldview and his delight in sharing knowledge. While the pecuniary anxieties of his immediate childhood household had been pervasive, and became lifelong, he had an empathetic and optimistic teaching perspective.  Because Joe was a generation younger than most of his nearby relatives, they had provided a world of extracurricular activities for him, including evenings at the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera, afternoons at Yankee Stadium and summers at the Jersey Shore.  These events shaped his love for all cultural experiences, whether ordinary or esoteric.  He was renowned for his expansive spirit and ability to reach and inspire his students.

Joe received an Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award in 1979, an Honors Program Outstanding Teaching Award in 1993, and a WVU Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award in 1995-1996.

Joe continued to teach graduate-level courses after retirement and was an active member and reader at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Morgantown.  Following his wife Elizabeth’s death in 2020, he moved to Haddonfield, New Jersey, and became a member of Christ the King Catholic Church.

Joe is survived by son Mark, of Evansville, Indiana; son Steve and wife Cynthia, of Los Angeles; daughter Kathryn and husband Jack, of Haddonfield; daughter Susanna and husband Doug, of Wheeling; and son Jim and wife Monica, of Greensboro, North Carolina.  He was a grandparent to Jane, Tess, Sarah and Marie, and had two great-grandchildren.  His son Chris preceded him in death.

Relatives and friends are invited to his visitation on Saturday, August 24, from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m. at Christ the King Catholic Church, 200 Windsor Ave., Haddonfield.  Funeral services will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, in recognition of his professional devotion and lifelong love of opera, donations in Joe’s name to the education initiative of the Metropolitan Opera would be greatly appreciated (Metropolitan Opera | Support HD Live in Schools (metopera.org).