Arthur Frederick Rense was born 20 May 1917 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Austrian-Italian immigrant parents, Joseph Rensi and his wife, the former Rosalia Luther.[3][4] He had six siblings, including five brothers: Louis, Rudolph, Andrew, Frank, William; and a sister, Rose.[2] After graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in English, Rense served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II.
Rense moved to Los Angeles after World War II and joined the original Los Angeles Daily News, one of four downtown Los Angeles newspapers (calling itself "the only Democratic newspaper west of the Rockies") as a sportswriter. He covered all sports, from young UCLA basketball coach John Wooden's Bruins to the then-new Los Angeles Rams football team, including their 1951 world championship. In 1954, after the Daily News folded, he joined United Press as a reporter, and in 1957 published and edited a magazine group that included "The Art Rense Sports Book: Professional Football", the first magazine devoted exclusively to professional football.[1]
Patricia Pashong, whom he married twice, firstly in 1957 (divorced March 1974) and secondly on 22 December 1987. She became known as Paige Rense, editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest magazine.
In 1998, Rense's widow, Paige, established the Arthur Rense Prize in poetry, presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award, given triennially, provides $20,000 to an exceptional poet.[5]
