Evelyn Rensing Kochansky

Evelyn Rensing Kochansky

April 19, 1920 - April 14, 2025

For more than a century, Evelyn Rensing Kochansky lived a life of grace and good humor, contagious curiosity and a creative sensibility grounded in science that she passed down to her descendants.

She was born in Brooklyn, New York, the fifth generation of women in her family there. Growing up during the Great Depression, she learned resourcefulness–a trait she continued to display her whole life. As a girl, she spent many weekends practicing drawing at the Brooklyn Museum near her home. She was also an insatiable reader, riding a streetcar to the local library where she would check out the maximum allowable number of books, forming another lifelong habit. To avoid the threat of polio, Evelyn and her family spent summers in Pine Plains, a tiny town in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.

In 1941 Evelyn graduated from Pratt Institute and married her classmate Nicholas Kochansky, who went immediately into World War II, then on to a career in publishing, eventually becoming a Vice President at Scholastic Magazines. Evelyn went to work in mechanical drawing, and for 25 years taught art and science at the King School in Stamford, Connecticut. They raised two children: a scientist and an artist. She also served on the board of the Stamford Museum and Nature Center. Her passions were needlework, gardening, and world travel. She kept meticulous journals of all their travels–not only words but also sketches of architectural details that caught her eye: the design of a bridge or the shape of a castle turret. And she wrote moving children’s stories in the same hand.

In 1981 Evelyn and her husband retired to a farm in Pickens, South Carolina. Their home place eventually became The Rensing Center, a rural creative/environmental retreat founded by Evelyn’s daughter Ellen, who lived on adjoining property. Ellen named the center in honor of her mother, and Evelyn became the beloved matriarch for hundreds of international artists and friends who gathered at the center over the years. She walked and rode a golf cart around the property, greeting visitors and engaging with them in a range of educational and community programs. During lively Rensing roundtable dinners, Evelyn anchored the discussion with a wisdom honed over her long and purposeful life.

Evelyn was the daughter of John Rensing and Mabel Wassmuth Rensing. She was predeceased by her husband Nicholas, a sister, Eileen Lewis, of Sacramento, California, and daughter-in-law Mary Cooper Kochansky, originally of Kingstree, South Carolina. She is survived by her son, Jan Kochansky, of Beltsville, Maryland; her daughter, Ellen Kochansky (husband Tom Johnson) of Pickens, South Carolina, and four grandchildren: Amalia Culp of Rome, Italy; Shelby Davis (wife Crystal Schenk) of Portland, Oregon; Amanda Maynard (husband James Maynard) of Boonsboro, Maryland; and Justina Kochansky (husband Joe Hughes) of Hastings, United Kingdom. The next generation provided three great-grandchildren: Alder Davis, Nichola Maynard, and Amber Maynard.

In later life, when she developed macular degeneration, Evelyn’s unquenchable thirst for learning did not cease with her ability to see words on a page. Thanks to the Library of Congress through the South Carolina State Library Talking Book Services, Evelyn listened to thousands of books during the 15 years she was legally blind, devouring both fiction and nonfiction, especially history and international affairs.

A private memorial service in celebration of Evelyn’s life will be held at Ramsey Creek Preserve/Memorial Ecosystems in Westminster, South Carolina, on June 14, 2025. The family will be honoring her memory that week and during later gatherings at The Rensing Center library. Their aim is to lovingly sustain Evelyn’s tradition of creative curiosity.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in her honor to the South Carolina Talking Book Services (https://sctalkingbook.org/donate) or to Upstate Forever (https://www.upstateforever.org/support-our-work).