Rabbi Sanford Rosen

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he attended Western Reserve University and in 1941 he received his rabbinic education at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Rosen and his wife of 62 years, Melba, moved to Bakersfield in 1947 where he founded Temple Beth El with 120 pioneering families. In 1951, he was asked to form a congregation on the Peninsula and named it after the spirit of the Bakersfield community he served.

He was president of the Northern California Board of Rabbis during the Civil Rights Movement, marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery, Ala,. in 1965.

He served on the board of the YMCA and chaired the San Mateo County Child Guidance Clinic Commission. He helped found the Jewish Youth Conference and a youth camp in Saratoga, with the help of Benjamin Swig for whom the camp is now named.

Gov. Edmund G. Brown appointed Rosen to the Advisory Committee on Children and Youth and he was a delegate to President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth.

Rosen is survived by his wife, of Fullerton; his son, Ronald Rosen, of South Pasadena; his daughter, Louise Rosen Byer, and son-in-law Robert Byer, of Pittsburgh, Pa. and his adoring grandchildren Alissa and Jacob Garcia.

A celebration of life will be held at noon, Thursday, Aug. 31 at Peninsula Temple Beth El, 1700 Alameda de las Pulgas, San Mateo. A meal of condolence will follow. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations in his memory be sent to Peninsula Temple Beth El. <