William Joseph Fenza

William J. Fenza passed away on October 18, 2020 in Allentown, Pennsylvania at the age of 91. He was born on May 21, 1929 to William J. Fenza, Sr. and Leona Lane Fenza of Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. He played football for Ridley Park High School. When he was a teenager, his piano teacher encouraged him to attend concerts of the Philadelphia Orchestra; he did, and he became a life-long lover and supporter of classical music. He attended Johns Hopkins University, where he studied literature and creative writing. The novelist John Barth was among his classmates. He was an editor and contributor to the university’s student publications, and he became involved with the students’ theater group, the Barnstormers. He played the director in Thorton Wilder’s Our Town in a cast that included actor John Astin. He married Dolores Duda in 1951. Upon graduation, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Because he graduated from a famous medical university, the Army assumed he knew something about medicine and assigned him to Army hospitals in Texas and Landstuhl, Germany. While he was stationed in Texas, he met enlisted former members of Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, who helped to reassign him to the Army’s unit of Special Services. He was part of a Special Service troupe that staged a musical, Xanadu, for the entertainment of the troops stationed in Europe. After he was discharged from the service, he earned his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania. He married Myra Wolf in 1969. He moved to Allentown, where he became General Counsel for General Acceptance Corporation, which became Finance America and then Chrysler First Financial. He continued his participation in theater in the Lehigh Valley’s various community theater groups: Civic Theatre of Allentown, Guthsville Playhouse, Municipal Opera Company, Monopco Musical Theater, and the Pennsylvania Playhouse. He directed successful productions of Godspell, Company, The Fantasticks, Man of La Mancha, Luv, Mame, and A Streetcar Named Desire. He also performed as an actor in many other productions. In 2004, at 8,000 feet on the mountain of Big Sky ski resort, Montana, he married Joan Miller Moran, who shared his love for skiing, world-wide travel, classical music, and opera. He and his wife supported the Curtis Institute of Music, the Metropolitan Opera, and Miller Symphony Hall. SURVIVORS: Survivors include his wife Joan Moran; daughters Christine Hill and J.J. Fenza; sons David Fenza, Richard Fenza, and James Moran; his grandchildren, Cierra, Hether, Travis, and Alex; and three great-granddaughters. CONTRIBUTIONS: In lieu of flowers, his family asks that you please make donations to Miller Symphony Hall. Development, Allentown Symphony Association, 23 N. 6th Street, Allentown, PA 18101. SERVICES: The family will hold a celebration of his life once it is safe to resume having public gatherings.