Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 23, 1993 TAG: 9304230189
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Rose, 67, retired in the mid-1980s after about 40 years at the United Nations. He served the delegation from Burma for years. U Thant, a Burmese diplomat, was secretary-general from 1962 to 1971.
Rose returned home to Roanoke after retirement and was "a man about town," going to Addison High School reunions and other festive occasions all the time, said Lawrence Hamlar, a childhood friend and president of Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home.
"He was just crazy about Roanoke, and crazy about Roanokers," Hamlar said.
And he was crazy about red. "That was his hobby, red. He just loved red," said his sister, Gwendolyn Grogan of Roanoke. He nearly always wore something red.
He also often sported some kind of small rose on his clothing - a rose pin or, perhaps, a rose sewn inside his jacket - and often a United Nations emblem.
Rose grew up in one of the Northeast Roanoke neighborhoods destroyed for commercial development by the city's urban renewal program. His family home was torn down to build Roanoke's main post office.
He named himself "Egghead" many years ago, according to his family.
When young, Rose managed sandlot teams, marble-shooting and horseshoe tournaments and other recreational activities for black young people in the days of segregation.
"He used a lot of money out of his pocket," said the Rev. Ivory Morton, one of the many young men mentored by Rose in the 1950s.
"He always instilled in us that size and ability didn't mean nothing if you didn't believe in yourself. He's one of the many men who told us, `If you get a diploma from Addison, you won't have trouble going anywhere.' That stuck with a lot of us."
In New York, Rose loved seeing movie stars like Dustin Hoffman. He'd run into them on elevators and around Manhattan, said his friend Katherine Reeves. "He knew a lot of important people, but he never bragged about it," Morton said.
Rose missed Manhattan and planned to go back soon for a visit.
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home, with burial in Williams Memorial Cemetery.
by CNB