BiographyRichard E. Rauh, the son of Richard Solomon Rauh and Helen Wayne Rauh, was born in Pittsburgh and educated at Shady Side Academy and the University of Pittsburgh. He is an actor, appearing on stage as early as 1946 in a Shady Side Academy production, director, and teacher. While an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, he was the founder in 1962 and station manager of WPGH, the University of Pittsburgh student radio station. He appeared on stage in 1966 in Moliere’s The Flying Doctor and Pirandello’s Man with a Flower in His Mouth. He has continued his career as an actor on the stage, in movies, and on television, and as a free-lance theater reviewer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Until the series ended in 1994, RER was the producer of the Pittsburgh Playhouse Film Festival. He ran the summer film series for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust at the Byham in 1997-1998. He teaches film and theater at Point Park College.
His philanthropy has encompassed both the Jewish community and the Pittsburgh theater and cultural arena. Among his endowments have been the dedication of the Rauh Jewish Archives of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania; the Richard E. Rauh Oral History Fund with the National Council of Jewish Women; the Helen Wayne Rauh Studio Theater at Carnegie Mellon University; the Rauh Theatre at the Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park College; the Helen Wayne Rauh Rehearsal Hall at the O’Reilly Theater; and the Richard S. Rauh Garden Room at Heinz Hall.
