Samuel Nathan Rosenberg

Rosenberg, born January 19, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York, was the son of Israel and Etta (Friedland) Rosenberg. An avid reader of the newspaper before primary school, he was admitted to an experimental program at Brooklyn's P.S. 208, where students began learning French and typing in the first grade. Graduating from Samuel J. Tilden High School in the McCarthy era, Rosenberg refused a $5,000 college scholarship because the sponsor required an anti-communist pledge. He was a man of principle throughout his life.

Rosenberg went on to receive an A.B. from Columbia College of Columbia University. He earned a Ph.D. in Romance Philology from the Johns Hopkins University. Apart from a year teaching at Columbia College (Columbia University) and a year at the University of California at Berkeley, he served as Professor of French and Italian at Indiana University, Bloomington, teaching a considerable range of courses, including French grammar and composition, the history of French and Italian, and Old French literature. A great advocate of study-abroad programs, he was twice IU's resident director for a year-long program in Strasbourg, France.

One of his earliest publications required twelve years of painstaking work with 700-year-old manuscripts of French song lyrics. He credited his collaborator, the late IU musicologist Hans Tischler, with teaching him, by example, how productively collaborations could work. In the following decades, Rosenberg derived tremendous joy from collaborating with scholars in various disciplines. The resulting volumes include a widely used teaching grammar of French, anthologies of medieval songs, scholarly editions of 13th-century manuscripts, and translations ranging from Arthurian texts to the poetry of Verlaine.

Rosenberg will be remembered with deep affection by all who knew him, including his husband, Jeffrey S. Ankrom; sister Sylvia Fogelman; brother and sister-in-law Alex and Carole Rosenberg and their family; and niece Yvonne (Fogelman) Hatherill and her family.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Indiana University Department of French and Italian, the Lilly Library, or IU Health Hospice.

Arrangements are under the direction of Day & Deremiah Frye Funeral Home in Bloomington. On a date to be determined--when the current pandemic has sufficiently abated--a celebration of Rosenberg's life is planned for Bloomington, as well as family gatherings in Los Angeles and New York. His ashes will be buried in Hillsboro Cemetery in Henry County, Indiana.

Online condolences may be given at DayDeremiahFryeFuneralHome.com