Rosalie Regen Papers

Rosalie Stork Regen (1909-1993) was a Quaker author and playwright who joined the Rahway and Plainfield Monthly Meeting in 1941. She was the daughter of Charles Wharton Stork and Elisabeth "Lisl" von Pausinger Stork. Rosalie went to Germantown Friends School and Radcliffe College, graduating with honors in English Literature in 1931. She then went to New York City where she worked in publishing before meeting and marrying Curt Regen, who worked for an insurance firm. They had three children, Richard, Barbara and Deborah Regen. Two grandchildren, Peter Regen and Jeffrey Regen, graduated from Swarthmore College in 1989 and 1991, respectively.

The Regens settled in New Jersey and were active members of the Rahway and Plainfield Monthly Meeting. Rosalie was active in Ministry and Oversight, Peace & Service and the Religious Education committees at Plainfield and served as chair of the New York Yearly Meeting Religious Education Committee. Curt was a member of the Board of The McCutchen, the Yearly Meeting Friends Home.

Rosalie wrote many stories, poems and plays for her own children and for Quaker children around the world. She was greatly involved with the First-day School at Plainfield MM and her plays were often put on by the children there and at Yearly Meeting at Silver Bay.

A collection of one-act plays entitled Peaceful Heroes was published by Friends General Conference in 1962. Other publications include Forever in Joy, a book of poetry published in 1974; I was a Problem Daughter, You were a Problem Mother, an autobiographical novel published in 1988; Peaceful Heroes II published in 1988; and The Joy of Death, written after the death of Curt Regen.

Curt and Rosalie were also active in visitation and traveled to minister to Friends all over the world. They took extensive slides, which were often shown at Silver Bay.

Rosalie also kept journals and a prodigious correspondence. Her interests, as documented in this collection of papers, photographs and slides, are divided among family, writing and active involvement with the affairs of the Society of Friends.