In Memoriam

Charles E. “Chuck” Rose

May 6, 2021

Chuck Rose
more recently

Chuck Rose
in freshman year

Chuck Rose died on February 13, 2021, in Louisville KY after a short stay in the hospital. Bob Rands ’64 and Bill Chandler ’64 (who was also a high-school classmate) were very helpful contacting his surviving spouse, Margie, to confirm details of a service in September.

Chuck and Margie had been married for 53 years and had no children. Margie is planning an open memorial service at Resthaven Cemetery in Louisville probably in September, and expects to post an obituary in August. We will post details as they become available.

Chuck spent three years at Yale with the Class of 1964 but did not graduate. Nevertheless, he was a very engaged classmate and wrote a nice personal essay for our 50th Reunion Class Book (see below).

Essay from 50th Reunion Class Book

by Chuck Rose

l wasn't sure about submitting something for this book, as I spent three years at Yale, not graduating in 1964. However, my experience, if not degree, from Yale was the basis for all the flavor / color (pick your favorite sensual analogy) in my life. So here goes an example or two.

We were born around the beginning of the U.S. involvement in WWII. We entered Yale fifteen years after it ended. But to me it had always been just history. Then enter Yale. I worked in the gym as part of my scholarship, where I met Fritz Barzilauskas — a huge hulk of a man (freshman line coach) who looked the part of a retired NFL lineman, a first-round draft choice in 1946. If you didn't know him, it's worth the trouble to Google him. As we were sitting in the records office one afternoon, he mentioned being in a Nazi POW camp and weighing 95 pounds. I looked at this 300-pound man in front of me and tried to imagine him at 95; I couldn't. My jaw probably dropped in reaction. There was more to the chat, but the point here is this — at that moment, WW II quit being "just" history for me and started being personal. Thank you, Fritz. Thank you, Yale.

Eventually, after leaving Yale, I matured some and ended up working in R&D for an international company, getting a non-Yale degree in the process and working for some marvelous mentors. It became my career; travel was a big part of it. I had a passion for Impressionism and architecture, especially Gothic cathedrals, an interest that originated with a freshman History of Art class and continues to this day. Everywhere I went, I'd find a place to visit. My favorites are the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, but especially the "prototype" Gothic cathedral in Chartres. Seeing it was a thirty-year-old dream come true. I have many digital pictures, even an unusual one of myself standing in front of the cathedral, taken by the insistence of my traveling companion for the afternoon, a student from Univ. of Minnesota who was making a presentation the next day at a conference we were attending in Versailles. He asked directions along the way, in very elementary French (that means I could understand it), and got us there quite well. We have a standing joke that the official language of all technical conferences is "broken English". It's funny when a German says it ... and true ... although it would sound arrogant to hear it from an American. Next morning, my American student friend gave the first three minutes of his presentation in "very elementary" French. He got a standing ovation. Nobody ever, ever gets a standing ovation during a technical presentation in our industry. He was Good. You get "flavor / color" in the 90s at Minnesota too. But I'll keep what I got in the 60s. Thank you, Yale.