August 11, 2010
BY THOMAS FRISBIE Staff Reporter
Chicago Sun-Times

Ronald Offen was so enthusiastic about poetry that he could make poets happy even when he rejected their work for his magazine, Free Lunch: A Poetry Miscellany.

"Ron would send back the poems, and even if he rejected them, they would have all sorts of little notes on them," Chicago poet and journalist Judith Valente said of the Glenview writer and editor who died Monday after a long battle with cancer. He was 79.

"He would raise a question about a choice of words or explain where he didn't understand an image," Valente said. "You got this totally personal response. Even if you were rejected, you were happy."

In fact, Valente recalled, after Mr. Offen rejected the first poems she sent to him, she incorporated his suggestions and eventually sold the poems to a bigger magazine.

"He had such a generosity of spirit," she said.

Mr. Offen also was a book reviewer for the Sun_Times from 1970 to 1977, and held many other jobs __ from taxi driver to insurance investigator to middle school library assistant.

But the graduate of Austin High School, Wright College and the University of Chicago is remembered for his work as a poet, author, playwright, critic, editor and theater producer.

His fourth book of poems, God's Haircut and Other Remembered Dreams, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Mr. Offen started the twice_a_year Free Lunch in 1989 after an earlier bout with cancer led him to reflect on the need to support poets and poetry. All serious poets in the nation were eligible for a free subscription. Among the many poets who had a forum in Free Lunch's pages during its 21 years were Stuart Dybek, David Hernandez, Neal Bowers, Jared Carter, Billy Collins, Stephen Dunn, Dave Etter, Donald Hall, Lyn Lifshin, Eve Merriam, Robert Peters, David Ray, F.D. Reeve, Cathy Song and Barry Sparks.

In 2004, Mr. Offen helped form a group called the James T. Farrell Centenary Committee that successfully pushed for city recognition of Farrell, including installing a plaque and giving an honorary street name to the block where the author lived from 1915 to 1917.

Mr. Offen suspended publication of Free Lunch late last year after a stroke affected his language abilities.

Friends recalled Mr. Offen as a very friendly person who always had a smile on his face and a whistle on his lips, and who loved music and travel.

"He was not only an artist himself but helped others," said Chicago playwright William Lederer. "His deepest work was toward the end, which every poet wishes."

He is survived by his wife, Beverly Kahling Offen; a sister, Pam Veley; children, Eric Offen, Deirdre Junta, Michele Offen and Darren Offen; five grandchildren and five great_grandchildren.