Amelia Rosner, 69, a.o. doyenne

[J.D. Baldwin]

I "met" Amelia here and she became my IRL friend. I have been a guest
in her home, and she had a standing invitation to be a guest in mine.
She hosted me a couple of times when I had business trips to NYC and
wanted to extend my stay a few days for tourism purposes. She was
terrific fun to dine and converse with.

I am an educated man -- some might say over-educated, really -- but I
am in awe of the breadth of her knowledge of American intellectual
life, particularly literature and art. She was a quick wit, and
appreciated quick wit in return. I still beam about a compliement she
gave me on a quip I made to her at the Met.

I was listening to that NPR puzzle show with Will Shortz with her one
Sunday morning, and the puzzle was to find a two-word term for
something you'd find in a hardware store; replace the first letter of
the first word with a letter, then the first two letters of the second
word with the same letter, to come up with two words that mean
opposite sorts of people. That's a complex, weird little puzzle, but
she didn't even hestitate before saying "paint thinner."

When I moved to the NYC area, she pointed me to a lot of cool stuff
that made my life way better: that pizza place in JC, that other one
in the Village, this or that exhibit at this or that gallery. My life
is substantially better for having known her and I regret that I
didn't get to see her just one more time, not for want of trying. But
her illness and the course of treatment sapped her of all energy
toward the end, though I was happy to see on FB that she got out of
the house to see a film or an art exhibit here and there. And I know
she was reading until the end.

She died sometime yesterday (the 13th) and I will miss her.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------

[radioacti...@gmail.com]

It's been a long time since I've seen her sig-line [wasn't it bifurcated like "Hyphler/Rosen" or something?].

Accordingly, I can't offhand recall for certain, but I'm PRETTY sure I exchanged some info and/or pleasantries with her. If so, I thank her [at least a few too tardily, obviously] for her contributions hereto. I saw her tagline (or truncated e-addressy unsure which) many times, which suggests to me that she was one of the principals making this newsgroup a valuable resource.

I hope she had a painless demise.

And I thank you, Sir Baldwin, for alerting us to this. Oh, and you don't strike me as "overeducated", J.D., as I'm not sure that is even possible. In my own dimwitted fashion, I recognize that your significant-detail-highlighting postings--infrequent as they are these days, alas--indicate that you're aware of ALL KINDS of facts (and way more vital, analyses of our fabled civilizational Passing Parade*) that I haven't--but sure wish I had!--picked up somewhere along the way ever since 1954.

So please, Mr. Baldwin: (1) don't ever stop alt-obit posting; and (2) kindly don't "reverse-kill-file" (or whatever the inverse of that so-called "kill-file" usenet process is; I presume there is indeed one) me, so as to render your postings invisible to my computer screen...as I find your e-comments not only factually-informative, but usually enterainingly-wry as well.

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
_______________________
* I believe that was John Nesbitt's phrase originally on radio and eventually brought to the screen in a passel of first-rate MGM shorts...assuming he himself didn't purloin the phrase from someone earlier.

[J.D. Baldwin]

In the previous article, David Carson <dav...@wa-wd.com> wrote:
> I often find that things that happen and are posted here intrude
> into my thoughts when I'm going about my real life. I was thinking
> the other day about how many of our old gang have died: Roy Archer,
> Bill Cmelak, John Gilmer, Michael P. O'Connor, Mark W. Bickford,
> Darrell Waddell, and now Amelia Hyfler-Rosner.

Correction: the tagline was "Hyfler/Rosner" because she shared an
account with her husband, Mr. Hyfler. She was just Amelia Rosner.

I've never sat shiva before, so that's going to be one more new
experience I owe to her.

[Louis Epstein]

OUCH!!

We were friendly for a bit,spoke on the phone amid much emailing
during my father's prostate surgery complications...in later years
we were less in touch after I was gobsmacked over our interests in
obituaries stemming from absolutely opposite attitudes toward
mortality.(I've never been on FB and had no contact with her there).

I gather she lived in San Francisco in recent years,after her
husband's job that she made him get after she made him sell his
family business moved there?

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

[Louis Epstein]

David Carson <dav...@wa-wd.com> wrote:

> That was a nice tribute, J.D. Bless you.
>
> You tend to form a certain impression of people, based on the posts
> they make here, of what they are like in "real life." Amelia actually
> objected once when I used that term here, because it implied that what
> we do here isn't "real life." But the account you gave of what she was
> like in person is in perfect accord with the impression she made of
> herself here. I suppose that helps to explain her objection.

I remember that I amused her in an email exchange where she told me
that I needed to get out into the "real world",and I responded,
"you mean people LIVE there?"

> I often find that things that happen and are posted here intrude into
> my thoughts when I'm going about my real life. I was thinking the
> other day about how many of our old gang have died: Roy Archer, Bill
> Cmelak, John Gilmer, Michael P. O'Connor, Mark W. Bickford, Darrell

> Waddell, and now Amelia Hyfler-Rosner. I'm sure there are others.
> There are a few people who I *assume* have died, and a few others I'm
> wondering about, but I think it would be tacky to write their names,
> so I won't.

I was going to write about this when I discovered an email I sent
to Madcow57 (Dolores) had bounced,after years after her departure
herefrom of mail NOT bouncing...but I believe she is alive though
an aunt(?) with a different middle name died and that comes up when
you search on her first and last.

When did we last hear from Dave Sill?

[Louis Epstein]

radioacti...@gmail.com <radioacti...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's been a long time since I've seen her sig-line [wasn't it bifurcated like "Hyphler/Rosen" or something?].

Hyfler/Rosner (Hyfler being her husband's name,while she was,she reported,almost certainly the only "Amelia Rosner" in the world.
They had a daughter and a son,the son had the grades to get into the Bronx High School of Science that she had attended but
missed the higher cutoff for Stuyvesant HS...after the attack on the Twin Towers (quite close to Stuyvesant) she said she
was so glad he didn't get in there.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

[Amelia disagreed on this]

[J.D. Baldwin]

In the previous article, Louis Epstein <l...@top.put.com> wrote:
> I gather she lived in San Francisco in recent years,after her
> husband's job that she made him get after she made him sell his
> family business moved there?

!?!

Other than international air travel, Amelia probably hadn't left the
boundaries of Manhattan and Brooklyn in five years -- and the latter
only because one of her children lives there. (I don't have specific
information about that, but it's plausible.) The notion of her moving
to SF is outlandish -- you may as well suggest she move to Zaire. I
don't think Mr. Hyfler sold a family business, ever, and his job did
move -- from Manhattan to Jersey City. He did a couple of years in JC
and retired.

I have no idea who you are thinking about with this SF / family
business notion, but you are thinking of someone else entirely.

[Louis Epstein]

J.D. Baldwin <INVALID...@example.com.invalid> wrote:
>
> In the previous article, Louis Epstein <l...@top.put.com> wrote:
>> I gather she lived in San Francisco in recent years,after her
>> husband's job that she made him get after she made him sell his
>> family business moved there?
>
> !?!
>
> Other than international air travel, Amelia probably hadn't left the
> boundaries of Manhattan and Brooklyn in five years -- and the latter
> only because one of her children lives there. (I don't have specific
> information about that, but it's plausible.) The notion of her moving
> to SF is outlandish -- you may as well suggest she move to Zaire. I
> don't think Mr. Hyfler sold a family business, ever, and his job did
> move -- from Manhattan to Jersey City. He did a couple of years in JC
> and retired.
>
> I have no idea who you are thinking about with this SF / family
> business notion, but you are thinking of someone else entirely.

I thought I had found mention of her being with the
San Francisco office of the ad agency she worked for,
and I know Forbes moved a lot of operations there.

I am certain she wrote to me about having first made
him sell his family business and then having made him
go get a job.

[J.D. Baldwin]

In the previous article, Louis Epstein <l...@top.put.com> wrote:
> I am certain she wrote to me about having first made
> him sell his family business and then having made him
> go get a job.

Just to be clear on this, inconsequential though it is:

While the SF thing is utterly baseless, and I am 100% sure of that, I
really don't know anything about the family business thing, except
that I never heard any story related to that and have little interest
in inquiring. It might have basis in truth and when I implied it
didn't, that was just speculation on my part. I don't know.

Since you mentioned (implied) that Mr. H worked for Forbes, and that's
hardly a secret (as he had a fun blog at that domain for a while[1]),
I will relate a tidbit about that: I often venture, for work, very
near the JC building where H worked at the tail end of his career. He
mentioned to me once that, if one times one's visit right, one can
happen across Steve Forbes himself getting coffee at the nearby mall
Dunkin Donuts. And that turned out to be true; I have seen him there
twice, though I don't go actively looking for him.

[1] The blog is still online at https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardhyfler/

[Louis Epstein]

J.D. Baldwin <INVALID...@example.com.invalid> wrote:
>
> In the previous article, Louis Epstein <l...@top.put.com> wrote:
>> I am certain she wrote to me about having first made
>> him sell his family business and then having made him
>> go get a job.
>
> Just to be clear on this, inconsequential though it is:
>
> While the SF thing is utterly baseless, and I am 100% sure of that, I
> really don't know anything about the family business thing, except
> that I never heard any story related to that and have little interest
> in inquiring. It might have basis in truth and when I implied it
> didn't, that was just speculation on my part. I don't know.

I don't recall much,but I think it related to pipecleaners?...
you could ask him.

> Since you mentioned (implied) that Mr. H worked for Forbes, and that's
> hardly a secret (as he had a fun blog at that domain for a while[1]),
> I will relate a tidbit about that: I often venture, for work, very
> near the JC building where H worked at the tail end of his career. He
> mentioned to me once that, if one times one's visit right, one can
> happen across Steve Forbes himself getting coffee at the nearby mall
> Dunkin Donuts. And that turned out to be true; I have seen him there
> twice, though I don't go actively looking for him.
>
> [1] The blog is still online at https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardhyfler/

I saw that searching on his name,the LinkedIn profile that might
list his prior employments is private,though.

My own visits to the former Forbes Building at 60 Fifth Avenue
were when Harry Seneker [since deceased] still edited the Forbes
Four Hundred,he once described me as its "number one fan".
He once had to break off a phone call with me because Malcolm Forbes
was entering his office,but he had never heard of Malcolm's brother
Bruce (1916-64) until I told him.

[Diner]

> She died sometime yesterday (the 13th) and I will miss her.

Very sorry to hear this news. Always liked her posts.

[Jason]

Obit w/several photos: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/amelia-rosner-obituary?id=36512433

AMELIA ROSNER OBITUARY
ROSNER--Amelia, 69, died on September 13, 2022. Survived by her loving husband, Richard, her companion for 45 years, adored children Miriam Hyfler (Fredric Goldstein) and Gene Hyfler, and extraordinarily devoted sister, Janet Brady. She grew up in Valley Stream and moved to Manhattan as a teenager, in time to make lifelong friends at Wagner Junior Highg School and the Bronx High School of Science. An on-and-off violist, and for a few years a persistent WBAI volunteer, and a competitive hearts player (see the Rosner Suicide Pass in "Win at Hearts"). She was an avid follower of obituaries, knew who was alive and who was dead, and befriended many talented obituarists. For four decades she supported her family as a copywriter, writing one darn ad after another. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes there were awards. Thanks to her, Americans were reminded often that Depression Hurts. But all she ever really wanted to do was read. Donations in her name can be made to the New York Society Library (nysoclib.org) or the library of your choice. Shiva at home, 12-8pm from Thursday through Wednesday.


Published by New York Times on Sep. 15, 2022.

[David Samuel Barr]

Thank you for posting that tribute, J.D.
Although we were both in NYC (for many
years just a few blocks from each other)
Amelia and I never got around to meeting
IRL but we exchanged e-mails over the
many years we were in a.o., usually
triggered by a posting but often going
off topic into some commonality we had
(or thought we did but turned out not to),
e.g. who knew whom at each other's schools
or our intolerance of the routine misuse/
abuse of the English language by the
masses, especially online. She was one
of the the bright lights of this group.