Wray Rominger, whose celebrated publishing house produced or republished many seminal books about the Catskills and the wider region, died October 23, 2025 at Robinson Terrace nursing home in Stamford, NY.
He was born Gilbert Wray Rominger in Omaha, Nebraska. Wray and his wife Loni started Purple Mountain Press in Fleischmanns in 1973, first as a print shop, then as a book publishing company that became known for its extensive catalogue of books on the Catskills – its human and natural history, art and architecture, folklore and genealogy, as well as nature photography, outdoor sports and guidebooks. In 1990 Purple Mountain Press acquired Harbor Hill Books, expanding the catalogue to include works about the Hudson Valley and Adirondacks.
Wray and Loni, a weaver, met in Germany where he was stationed in the Air Force. They had no plans to go into publishing. But when he couldn’t find a teaching job in his chosen field – art history (he had a master’s from the University of Texas at Austin) – they packed up a converted school bus and drove from Texas to Woodstock at the invitation of a friend. There Wray got a job with the fledgling Woodstock Times where the smell of printer’s ink cast its spell.
Moving to Fleischmanns, they acquired a prominent building on Main Street and bought a small letterpress, taking print orders to pay the bills before bringing out their first book, A Catskill Songbook, in 1978. For many years they ran a retail shop while editing manuscripts from new and established authors, transforming them into books about the Catskills which the Romingers felt had been too long overlooked.
Wray loved his adopted community. He was a director of the first Fleischmanns Chamber of Commerce in 1974, and president of the Delaware County Chamber in 1985. He and Loni produced some 40 issues of the Fleischmanns Flyer newsletter to keep village residents connected and informed.
Environmental causes were dear to Wray’s heart, and he was a long-time supporter of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. He was also a fan of author Walter Brooks’ Freddy the Pig books and was a proud member of Friends of Freddy, which honored him at its convention in Cairo, Greene County, in October 2024.
Wray leaves cousins and a host of friends who surrounded him with love and care as his health declined.
Gifts in Wray’s memory may be made to Skene Memorial Library, Fleischmanns; Hudson River Sloop Clearwater or Greater Fleischmanns Museum of Memories.
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