Howard T. Rosen, Attorney, Family Man
Howard T. Rosen, a New Jersey attorney who often took the month of August off to spend with his family on Sandpiper Lane in Amagansett, died at the age of 86 on May 23 in Naples, Fla. He had been in constant, low-level pain since knee replacement surgery eight years ago, his son Jim Rosen said.
Mr. Rosen was born on March 8, 1928, in Newark to Jacob and Fae Rosen, and was the first member of his family to go to college. He was a graduate of Irvington (N.J.) High School, where he grew up, and Syracuse University, and he served in the Air Force in the early 1950s. His father, who wanted him to join him in business, told his son he would pay for law school if he got into Harvard. He did, becoming a clerk for New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Nathan Jacobs after graduation. He founded the New Jersey firm Rosen, Gelman, and Weiss, which specialized in utilities regulation, and had been a chairman of the public utilities section of the New Jersey Bar Association.
Active in charitable causes and in political life, Mr. Rosen was appointed a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations by President Jimmy Carter and also served as chairman of the Committee for a Responsible Legislature for New Jersey. He was a life member of the Uniform Laws Commission. According to Jim Rosen, his father crossed religious and ethnic lines to help people in every way he could. With his wife of 62 years, Selma, he touched the lives of three generations of their family by inviting them all on a cruise to help celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
The couple were introduced to Amagansett by friends in 1960 and bought property and built on Sandpiper Lane in 1967. His three children, among others, spoke at his memorial service on May 30 at Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange. N.J. They described his love of classical jazz, his penchant for air trumpet, and his ability to win at competitive games. He turned Monopoly into a game with “Wall Street-esque” dealings, one of his grandchildren said, and showed remarkable savvy about real-life real estate, too, his family said. He read voraciously and had hundreds of books on his Kindle at the time of his death.
In addition to his wife, who lives in Naples, and Jim Rosen, who lives in Newton, Mass., he is survived by his children, Amy Rosen of Montclair, N.J., Jon Rosen of Amagansett, and Mark Rosen of Tallahassee, Fla. Four grandchildren also survive.
Memorial contributions were suggested for Jewish Family Services of Metrowest, 475 Franklin Street, Framingham, Mass. 01702, or the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, 31 Evans Terminal Road, Hillside, N.J. 07205.