Paper recycling industry veteran Jerry Rose, 84, of Stamford, Connecticut, died Saturday, June 22, surrounded by family.
Rose worked in the paper and recycling industries for 50 years, having held several senior management positions before becoming a consultant.
According to Moore & Associates, the Atlanta-based consulting firm that Rose last worked with, he was “a legend in the industry, with a wealth of knowledge and friends in every corner of the business. He could be intimidating and exacting, but he was also a hard worker who was always willing to help out a colleague.”
Bill Moore, the principal of Moore & Associates, says, “Many challenging data and information needs come up in our consulting work, and if you asked Jerry to handle something, you knew it was done. He never stopped short of the goal.”
Rose was born in Brooklyn, New York, and spent two years in the army, stationed in Berlin. He trained for the Olympics in water polo before returning to New York to complete his degree at the New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University with a specialization in pulp and paper.
His first job was at a nearby mill, where he worked his way up from tour boss to mill manager.
Rose moved his family to five locations from the late 1960s through the 1980s, having held executive level positions at Simkins Industries, Potlatch Corp., Continental Can and the Standard Group.
In the mid-1980s, he started his own business, which produced and marketed private label tissue. By the 1990s, Rose moved into consulting on operations, training, purchasing and recycling for the paper industry. In the late 1990s, he began working with Moore & Associates on a regular basis, consulting on recovered paper.
Outside of work, Moore & Associates says Rose felt a great sense of duty to his immediate and extended family. His wife, Barbara, died in 2011. Together, they raised four children and were grandparents to two. His family enjoyed many long-distance driving vacations that eventually covered the entire East coast, which he documented in photographs.
Although he continued to work into his 80s, Rose recently semiretired and began to volunteer at The Ferguson Library in Stamford. Moore & Associates says he soon became an expert on pricing used books and a key member of the team. Like his work colleagues, his manager at the library says he will be missed and remembered.
“Jerry will be deeply missed by his colleagues at Moore & Associates –and by the whole paper and recycling industries,” Moore says. “Our sincerest sympathies go out to his family and friends.”
A funeral service was held at Temple Beth El in Stamford Tuesday, June 26.