Diana Burn Rosen

Diana Burn Rosen, 82, a longtime Summit resident, died Feb. 10, 2011. Born in England, she moved to the United States in the late 1940s.

Mrs. Rosen worked with Riker Laboratories Inc. in Los Angeles and Ciba Pharmaceuticals Co., Inc., and as a translator of scientific documents and technical papers for several decades from German, French, Spanish, and Russian. She also taught swimming, lifesaving, and adaptive aquatics for three decades, retiring in her 70s. She trained a large percentage of the area’s lifeguards over the last four decades, and the adaptive aquatics program she led for decades helped people with special needs gain strength and develop confidence and skills in and out of the water.

She received her undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University. She received a master’s degree in organic chemistry from Harvard University and a master’s in Chinese studies from Seton Hall University. She was also conversant in Chinese and Hebrew and was studying Arabic.

She helped shape many of the Summit area’s key institutions during her five decades in the area. She served as chair or president of the Summit Area Red Cross, Temple Sinai of Summit, the Summit Board of Recreation, the Municipal Youth Guidance Council, the Summit YWCA (now called the Connection for Women and Families), and various other organizations. She was chair of the Community Programs Advisory Board and served on the board of the Summit Historical Society. In 1987, she and her husband, William, were named “Citizens of the Year” by the United Way of Summit, New Providence, and Berkeley Heights. In 1973, she received the Joseph P. Hadley award for adult volunteer leadership in the YMCA, and in 1979, she received the Summit Area YMCA’s Stuart Reed Memorial Award for distinguished service to youth.

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“Summit is a little dimmer today,” Jordan Glatt, mayor of Summit, said of her passing.

She is survived by her husband of 57 years, William E.; two daughters, Deborah of Basking Ridge and Barbara of Newton, Mass.; three sons, David of Short Hills, Richard of Summit, and Andrew of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and nine grandchildren.

Services were held Feb. 13 at Temple Sinai, Summit, with arrangements by Bernheim-Apter-Kreitzman Suburban Funeral Chapel, Livingston. Memorial contributions may be made to the Summit Area Public Foundation (SAPF) for the Diana Burn Rosen Fund, P.O. Box 867, Summit, N.J. 07902-0867.