Carol Hodes for NJ USHWA
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ -- July 27, 2016 -- The
memory of Ray Brienza, the dean of harness racing reporters in New Jersey, will
be commemorated by the New Jersey chapter of the United States Harness Writers
Association with the installation of a print of his Communicators Hall of Fame
portrait on Saturday, July 30, 2016 in the press box at the Meadowlands
Racetrack.
Brienza was a writer and columnist for the
Star-Ledger for nearly 40 years, as well as the associate dean emeritus for
admissions at New York University's School of Medicine. He passed away on
Friday, November 6, 2015. He was 80.
While attending Rutgers-Newark, Brienza began
covering harness racing at Newark's Weequahic Park in the 1950s for the
now-defunct Newark News. He assumed the harness racing beat at the
Star-Ledger in 1972 when the News folded, reporting and handicapping for nearly
40 years.
“Ray loved harness racing and provided
daily coverage for the sport for many years in one of the state’s largest
newspapers,” said Moira Fanning, president of the NJ USHWA Chapter. “He
was a respected and knowledgeable reporter and a press box fixture every night
the Meadowlands raced.”
Brienza won three John Hervey Awards, as well as
the 2004 President's Award from the United States Harness Writers Association,
for writing excellence, and his contributions were recognized by that group in
2007, when he was inducted into its Communicators Hall of Fame in Goshen, NY.
Brienza had a concurrent career in higher
education, spending 31 years at the NYU School of Medicine as its associate
dean of admissions and financial aid before retiring in 2004. NYU
established the Raymond J. Brienza Scholarship Fund to support needy students of
high academic merit.
Born in Newark, Brienza lived in South Orange,
NJ for nearly 50 years. He was married to his wife, Una for 43 years
until her passing in 2002. They had six children and six grandchildren.
