By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COLLEGE HILL - Renna Lee Tway Cahalan, director of the medical library and medical records at the old Rollman Psychiatric Institute from 1961 until 1979, died Sunday at Llanfair Retirement Community. She was 90.

"At a time when few women graduated from college, and despite family financial hardships, she achieved both bachelor's and master's degrees using her own resources that she obtained through scholarships," said her daughter, Kathy Cahalan of Edgewood.

Mrs. Cahalan was born on her family's farm near Mount Sterling, in Madison County, in 1913. She graduated from Delaware High School north of Columbus in 1931.

She received an academic scholarship to attend Ohio Wesleyan University, where she majored in English literature and graduated in 1935.

The following year, she attended Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) School of Library Science on an academic fellowship, receiving a master's degree.

Mrs. Cahalan worked at the Kent State University library from 1936 to 1938. From 1939 to 1942, she was librarian at Brush High School in Cleveland and in 1943 she was librarian at the Army Medical Library in Cleveland.

She met William F. Cahalan while working as librarian at the Naval Training Station in Bainbridge, Md. They married in 1944, and Mrs. Cahalan worked at raising four children.

When her youngest child was 8, she became director of the medical library and medical records at Rollman Institute. She was chairwoman of a statewide committee to write a medical records reference manual to be used around the state. It was also a model for several other states.

After she retired, Mrs. Cahalan became a Quaker and a peace advocate. Spending time researching her genealogy, she documented her family tree.

Survivors include her husband, William F. Cahalan; three sons, William L. Cahalan of Price Hill , Robert F. Cahalan of Greenbelt, Md., and James M. Cahalan of Indiana, Pa.; six grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

A memorial is 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Community Friends Meeting, 3960 Winding Way, Cincinnati, OH 45229. Memorials: Hospice of Cincinnati, c/o The Bethesda Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 633597, Cincinnati, OH 45263-3597 or Sierra Club, 85 Second St., 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105-3459.