C. Rosenzweig, TV Writer, Cancer Activist, 71

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Carol Rosenzweig, a pioneer telethon producer, TV writer and art
collector who participated in a new cancer treatment study at UCLA, has
died at the age of 71, on May 20, 2002, of ovarian cancer, at her home
in Beverly Hills, California.

During the 1950s, while with a Pittsburgh public relations firm,
Rosenzweig produced telethons for the March of Dimes and other national
charitable organizations. In fact, she wrote the official March of Dimes
telethon handbook, which was used by the organization's future telethon
producers. In 1976, Rosenzweig wrote "21 Days of America," a series of
two-minute, nationally televised salutes to the country's bicentennial
featuring President Ford, Bob Hope and other notable Americans.

In the mid-1980s, she wrote several episodes of "Women of the World," a
syndicated series of one-hour documentary profiles of famous and
not-so-famous women.

About the same time, Rosenzweig created Artists Editions Ltd., a Beverly
Hills company that produces jewelry by 10 well-known artists.

Rosenzweig was inspired by the Bauhaus School -- a 20th century strain
of art in which artists of dissimilar media worked together.

"I've collected furniture and other works from the period when the
Bauhaus was formed in Europe," she said in 1989. "Even though the
artists were painters and sculptors, they made furniture, jewelry and
ceramics with the idea that art could be functional. That's what
inspired me."

"She wanted to have these [jewelry] pieces for herself, and she set up a
workshop with the artists, which we funded," said Rosenzweig's husband,
Saul. But other women also showed an interest in owning the pieces, he
said. And out of that grew the idea of creating signed and numbered
limited-edition jewelry pieces.

The works created for Artists Editions Limited are in the permanent
collections of 12 major art museums, including the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

For a half-dozen years in the 1980s, Rosenzweig headed a committee for
the Los Angeles, California, museum's contemporary art council that
recommended monetary prizes and exhibitions at the facility for young
artists.

Born Carol Coppersmith in New York City, New York, Rosenzweig received a
bachelor's degree in journalism from Pennsylvania State University in
1951.

The same year, she went to work as an account executive for Public
Relations Research Inc. in Pittsburgh, where she spent the next nine
years and eventually became vice president. Through that firm, she
produced nearly 20 telethons, mostly for the March of Dimes.

Rosenzweig was first diagnosed with breast cancer at 29 and, after
undergoing two mastectomies in nine years, remained cancer-free for 22
years. In 1991, she was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer. She
experienced recurrences in 1994 and 1997, which required more surgeries
and chemotherapy.

In 1997, she became the first patient at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center to
receive a new genetic treatment for ovarian cancer, which helped push
the cancer into remission.

"She was a very inspirational person," said Judith Gasson, director of
UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. "She was very outspoken in the way she
encouraged people to participate in clinical trials, because that's
where all new therapies come from. And she firmly believed she was alive
for those four decades because of advances in cancer therapy and that
those are only possible because people are willing to participate in
clinical trials."

As a long-time cancer survivor, Rosenzweig spent a good deal of time
writing and speaking about cancer. "She consulted with dozens and dozens
of cancer victims all over the world to try to encourage them," said her
husband, president of the RZ Group communications investment company.

"We were fortunate enough to have her speak to our volunteers on several
occasions," Gasson said.

"She brought people to their feet. She really had a charisma that is
unusual."

In 2000, the Rosenzweigs donated $1 million to establish an endowed
chair in cancer therapy development at the Jonsson Cancer Center.

In addition to her husband, Rosenzweig is survived by her children, Davy
Rosenzweig of New York City and Laurance Rosenzweig of Philadelphia; a
grandson; and two brothers, Dr. Abraham Kupersmith of New York City and
James Coppersmith of Marblehead, Maine.

The family requests that memorial donations be made in Rosenzweig's name
to UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation, Factor Building, 8-590 Box
951780, Los Angeles, CA 90095.