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Reno Family Papers, 1900-2000

 

Summary

Creator:
Henry Olaf and Jane Wood Reno
Extent:
22.62 Linear Feet
14 boxes
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The materials in this collection represent the Reno family's service as journalists as well as their love of South Florida. These materials are the private and public writings, photographs, and ephemera of the family and provide biographical background and context to multiple figures, including Attorney General Janet Reno. Reflecting the family's journalistic occupations, Henry, Jane, and Robert's newspaper articles and columns make up the bulk of the items in this collection.

Biographical / historical:

Henry Olaf Reno was a Danish-American journalist. Born in Denmark with the surname Rasmussen, Reno emigrated to the United States in 1912 and settled in Miami, Florida. After attending the University of Tennessee, he became a reporter for the Miami Herald, working there primarily as a crime reporter for 43 years. Henry Olaf Reno had 3 children. He passed away on 7 August 1967 in Miami, Miami-Dade, Florida, USA.

Jane Wood Reno worked as a reporter for the now-defunct Miami News. Jane Wood entered Lanier High School for Girls in Macon, Georgia, at age 11. In 1925, her family moved to Miami, Florida, and she entered Miami High School as a sophomore and graduated at age 15. Her father, a lawyer, had moved down during the Miami boom years. While she intially thought that Florida was dull and boring, the 1926 hurricane changed her mind. "It had force, all that great power. It was something I could feel," she said. She then entered the University of Miami as an English major, but after two years took off to Greece to live with her Aunt Margaret Sloan (Hunter) Balfour and her husband, Dr. Marshall Balfour. In 1932 she returned to Florida and went back to UM but switched her major to physics. After graduating, she went to work as a social worker in Miami.

In high school, Jane Wood had been interested in journalism and even interviewed Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. In her first two years of college, though, her partying caused her to flunk journalism. After the 1935 Hurricane, she grew disenchanted with social work and went to work at the Miami Herald.

At the Herald, she met and later married its star police reporter, Henry Olaf Reno, and even managed to scoop him on a story which earned her "The Big Story Award."Jane and Henry built their house "way out by the Everglades" in what is now the middle of suburban Kendall. In addition to her job as a reported, Jane managed the Miami Seaquarium account as a publicist and grabbed world attention when she sent a male porpoise--via ocean liner--to Italy to console a femal porpoise whose mate had died. All of her pet peacocks were named Horace.

The Children:

Janet Reno was the first female US Attorney General, appointed by Pressident Bill Clinton in 1993. This was fitting, as she had always been a pioneer. She attended Cornell University, where she majored in chemistry during a time when there were not many women in that field. While at Cornell she was a member of the Women's Student Government Association (WSGA). She graduated from Harvard Law School as one of only 16 women in a class of 500. She worked for the Dade County State Attorney's office, and subsequently became State Attorney for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida in 1978.

After her tenure at US Attorney General, she returned to Florida and became involved in environmental and educational activism. She ran in the Democratic primary for Governor in 2002, though she was subsequently defeated. She passed away from Parkinson's Disease in 2016.

Maggy Reno Hurchalla was an actitivst and a Martin County (Florida) commissioner from 1974-1994, serving as a Democrat in a heavily Republican region. She was the county's first female county commissioner and was known for her strong environmentalist views, she served on the state board of the Nature Conservancy and on the Governor's Commission for a Sustainable South Florida. She passed away in 2022.

Robert Reno followed his parents into a career in journalism. He worked for the Miami Herald in both Miami and Key West, New Orleans Times-Picayune, and Newsday. According to his obituary in The Miami Herald: "As a liberal columnist from the 1980s until his retirement in early 2003, Reno took on the National Rifle Association, conservatives, and the super rich, railed against poverty, social inequality and corrupt politicians, and delighted in deflating the outsized egos of the powerful." Robert passed away in 2012.

Mark Reno had a keen sense of adventure. According to a Miami Herald article after his death, it was noted that he "worked as a game warden, a boat captain, an alligator wrestler, a scuba diver, a paratrooper, ran tugboats and an oil supply ship off the coast of Nigeria, and, primarily, worked as a carpenter. While in the Army he earned a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, prompting Henry to dub him "Lt. Fuzz" (a nod to the "Beetle Bailey" comic stip character). In his last two months, he managed to carve benches out of tree remains he'd kept, left over from the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992." Mark Reno also worked as a bailiff in Dade County. He passed away in 2014.

Extended Family Represented in this Collection:

George Wood, Jane's father, was an attorney in Macon, GA, and later in Miami. Included in these papers are some of his correspondence and dockets related to legal cases he worked on during the 1920s, especially during the Florida Land Boom.

Winifried Wood: Jane's sister was a pilot and a member of the famed Women's Air Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II. She wrote a book about her adventures entitled "We Were WASPS," a manuscript of which is maintained in this collection.

Other family members are, of course, mentioned. Jane had started to work on family geneology and some of her notes are included herein.

Acquisition information:
Materials were donated by Maggy (Reno) Hurchalla
Arrangement:

The materials in this collection are arranged as follows: Henry Reno--Personal, Professional; Jane Wood Reno--Personal, Professional; Children of Henry and Jane Reno; Family and Friends; Family Photos; General Photos; Scrapbooks--Janet Reno European Trip; Oversize Items; Jane Reno Oversize Items; Robert Reno Oversize Items; Robert Reno "The Liberal Opinions" Newspaper Column

Physical facet:
4 Banker Boxes; 7 Medium Flat Boxes; 3 Large Flat Boxes
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research. Researchers must contact Special Collections & University Archives in advance for access to unprocessed born digital materials in this collection. Collection restrictions, copyright limitations, or technical complications may hinder the SPCUA's ability to provide access to unprocessed born digital materials.

Terms of access:

The Reno Family Papers are owned by Florida International University. This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

For more information please visit: https://library.fiu.edu/find/copyright/general

Location of this collection:
Florida International University
11200 SW 8th Street
Miami
FL
33199
USA