
Paige Rense

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, 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, California. After running away from home at age 15, 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 "Cosmopolitan", 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".
At the time of her retirement, she was reported to be working on a book about the career of her late husband Kenneth Noland, 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:
Personal life.
Rense was married to:
Rense died on January 1, 2021 of heart disease.