About
For most of his life, Rick Pender has been all about writing. He began reading at age 4; and within a few years created and published a newsletter for his family’s neighbors, using a kid’s tiny offset press.
WRITING AND PUBLISHING SINCE CHILDHOOD
For most of his life, Rick Pender has been a writer. He began reading at age 4, and within a few years he created and “published” a newsletter for his family’s neighbors, using a small toy offset press. At 11, he began a seven-year stint delivering a morning newspaper, The Cleveland Plain Dealer. He read the “PD” voraciously, especially arts and sports coverage.
SCHOOL WORDS
At Chardon High School he wrote for the school paper and co-edited the yearbook. He performed in plays and musicals and was a sports announcer. At Oberlin College he majored in English, graduated with high honors and went on to graduate school, earning a master’s degree in English literature at Case Western Reserve University. After a year in the Medieval Studies Institute at SUNY-Binghamton, he returned to CWRU to complete his Ph.D., writing a dissertation on Sir Thomas Malory, the 15th-century writer whose translations of the legends of King Arthur, the Morte D’Arthur, was the first work published by William Caxton, England’s first printer. (Note: His passion for legends, historic facts and artifacts have long fascinated him.)
BROADCASTING WORDS
In 1980 Rick moved to southwest Ohio to promote WGUC-FM, Cincinnati’s classical music station. He edited and published WGUC In Print, a monthly program guide that also reported on Greater Cincinnati’s arts scene. In 1984 Northern Kentucky University recruited him to launch and manage WNKU-FM, its newly licensed National Public Radio station. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he hosted weekly programs and provided overnight theater reviews for listeners. More recently Rick was a regular contributor of interviews for WVXU-FM’s Around Cincinnati, a weekly arts magazine produced by Cincinnati Public Radio.
WRITING WORDS OF INFLUENCE
Rick was a public relations professional from 1978 to 1998 — including colleges, radio stations and health care organizations — eventually becoming an executive counselor at Cincinnati’s largest public relations agency. He was a freelance writer for several alt-newsweeklies, providing a column and theater reviews for EveryBody’s News (1991-1994) and an array of arts coverage for CityBeat (starting in 1994). From 1998 to 2006 he served as CityBeat’s arts and culture editor. In 1998 he joined the American Theatre Critics Association and served as its chair in 2005-2006. His writing credits included The Big Pig Gig: Celebrating Pigs in the City, a 2000 photo book about Cincinnati’s successful public art event featuring fanciful pig statues.
A FOCUS ON MUSICAL THEATER
In 1998 Rick also began to contribute interviews, reviews and features to The Sondheim Review, a quarterly magazine about the legendary musical theater composer and lyricist. He joined its editorial board in 2002 and, in 2004, became TSR’s managing editor, serving until 2016 whenitceased publication. For two years he continued coverage of Sondheim’s shows and related matters via a website, EverythingSondheim.org. In 2018 he sold the site to Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, where continues on the website of one of America’s foremost presenters of Sondheim’s shows.
WORDS FOR NONPROFITS
After CityBeat in 2006 Rick became the director of development and advancement for Cincinnati Opera, America’s second oldest opera company. From 2012 to 2014, he was vice president for development and communications for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio.
STILL WRITING
In retirement, Rick took on numerous freelance writing assignments. The first edition of his popular book 100 Things To Do in Cincinnati Before You Die was published in 2016. It had a second edition in 2019, and a third in 2024. Having served for years as a popular local history tour guide he published Oldest Cincinnati, published in 2021.
A FOCUS ON STEPHEN SONDHEIM
In 2018 Rick’s extensive reference volume, The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia, was published. The 650-page book had 131 entries about Sondheim, his shows, their productions and his numerous collaborators. His in-depth study of the composer’s greatest work, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: Behind the Bloody Musical Masterpiece was published in 2025. In 2022 he collaborated with Cincinnati historian Jeff Suess to co-author The Cincinnati Bengals: An Illustrated Timeline, a coffee-table volume tracing the teams entire history from its beginning in 1968 to its 2022 Super Bowl appearance.
Rick continues to write about history, theater and the arts. He often lends his editing expertise to other writers who need proofreading and copyediting. In 2021, he was invited to join Cincinnati’s Literary Club, America’s oldest such organization, founded in 1849. He’ll write and present occasional papers to the club’s erudite membership.
Seventy years on, he’s still writing!