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Alfred L. Rose was born in New York City on June 21,
1886, the son of William R. Rose, who founded the Firm
in 1875. He graduated from Princeton University in 1908
and attended New York Law School, receiving his law
degree in 1910. During law school, Mr. Rose clerked
at the firm of James, Schell & Elkus, where one
of the senior partners was Joseph M. Proskauer. Following
his admission to the bar in January 1911, he began a
clerkship in his father's office, then known as Rose
& Paskus. At that time, the Firm primarily represented
family businesses in real estate, retailing, tobacco
and textiles, but shortly before World War I, it began
to develop an international and tax practice.
Alfred L. Rose enlisted in the United States Navy as
a Quartermaster 3rd Class on April 9, 1917, three days
after the United States entered World War I. He served
until the end of the war, including nine months at sea
aboard the U.S.S. Wisconsin, and rose to the rank of
Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Naval Reserve. Mr. Rose
returned to the Firm in January 1919. That fall, William
R. Rose's partner, Benjamin G. Paskus, suggested to
the senior Mr. Rose that Alfred be admitted to partnership.
In 1930, when Judge Joseph M. Proskauer joined the Firm,
it was renamed Proskauer, Rose & Paskus. William
R. Rose died later that year, and Paskus, who had been
retired for many years, died in 1948. The Firm was renamed
Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn in 1942.
"He had a very great ability
to decide between what was really important and what
was not important."
Mr. Rose practiced corporate, real estate and trusts
and estates law. Among his principal clients were May
Department Stores, Federated Department Stores, Miles
Shoes, Roxy Theaters Corporation, Sunray (later Sun)
Oil Corporation and Irving Trust Company. He served
as a director of May and Sunray, as well as Liebmann
Breweries, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway and Carnegie
Hall. He was highly regarded for both his legal and
management skills. "First of all," commented
one of his partners, "[he was] an excellent business
lawyer, able to make good business judgments. He had
a very great ability to decide between what was really
important and what was not important." Mr. Rose
also served as a managing partner of the Firm from the
1920s until 1966, when he reached age 80.
Mr. Rose's principal philanthropic endeavor was Mount
Sinai Hospital. He was elected a trustee in 1933 and
served as president from 1948 to 1956 and as chairman
from 1956 to 1960. In 1976, the Cardiac Care Unit was
named for him and, the following year, he received an
honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Mount
Sinai School of Medicine. He also served for many years
as a director of the United Hospital Fund and the Federation
of Jewish Philanthropies.
Mr. Rose spent much of his leisure time at "The
Hedge," a farm in Pine Plains, N.Y., which he owned
from 1932 to 1972, and "Camp Indian Point"
at Lake Placid, N.Y., which he purchased in 1924. He
went to his office at the Firm until shortly before
his death on November 21, 1981 at the age of 95.
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