Pitt gets $1 million endowment for theater

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Richard E. Rauh, whose name is synonymous with theater philanthropy in Pittsburgh, is leaving a $1 million gift in his estate for the Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre, the former Studio Theatre in the basement of the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral ofLearning.

The estate, after his death, will establish an endowed fund for the theater space, which was a library when Mr. Rauh attended Pitt as an undergraduate.

“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time because I went to Pitt and spent a lot of time there. This just seemed like the right moment,” says Mr. Rauh,77.

In 2014, he pledged $75,000 over a three-year period in a Dietrich Matching Campaign for Pitt undergraduate scholarshipendowments.

Fond memories of his time at Pitt include his freshman year, 1958, when he became one of the early disc jockeys at Pitt’s student-run WPTS-FM. Mr. Rauh’s first time onstage was a 1960s’ production of Luigi Pirandello’s "The Man With the Flower in His Mouth,” performed at the Cathedral of Learning.

The actor and educator is the son of actress Helen Wayne Rauh and businessman Richard S. Rauh, who founded the Pittsburgh Playhouse in 1935. The Playhouse in Oakland became the home of Point Park University theatrical productions and includes the Rauh Theater. personal measurements, using a custom-built app called Bookmark.

In keeping with the storefront’s blue-and-white palette, advisors will be outfitted in crisp coordinating uniforms by New Yorkbased designer Whitney Pozgay. She drew inspiration for them from late photographer and street-style pioneer Bill Cunningham’s signature “bleu de travail” French worker jacket.

Other recent additions to the neighborhood are Homage