Joseph L. von Rosenberg

Joseph L. von Rosenberg Jr. Joseph L. von Rosenberg Jr. died on May 20, 2004, in Marietta, Georgia, following an eighteen-month battle with lung cancer. He was 71 years old. The eldest of four children, he was born on August 22, 1932, in Lockhart, Texas, and he was raised in Austin, Texas, where he graduated from Austin High School in 1950. After receiving his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Texas, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, where he was stationed at Coronado Island, California, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from 1954 until 1957. Following his honorable discharge, he moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and married Flo Stuart, with whom he had three children during their 33-year marriage. He returned to Austin in 1959, earning his Ph.D. degree and completing post-doctoral work at the University of Texas before joining the faculty at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, where he raised his family and was a professor of organic chemistry for 27 years. In 1992, he retired from the U.S. Naval Reserves as a Lieutenant Commander. Upon retiring from Clemson in 1992 – having been asked for 27 years, “If Texas is so great, why don’t you go back there?” – he did just that: first, to Austin, then (after determining that Austin had become “too liberal”) to San Antonio. During his final illness, he moved to Georgia to be near his two daughters. Dad’s interests were wide-ranging and he pursued them all with intensity and passion. These interests included, at various times during his life, collecting stamps and pocketknives; hand-loading rifle cartridges; classical music; photography; military history; and travel. He had a strong appreciation for the art of cooking. Although right-handed, he was a left-handed shooter who was a wonderful shot with either a rifle or a shotgun. He read for several hours every day of his life; there was hardly a subject about which he was not conversant. He loved Mexican food and margaritas, barbeque and draft beer, bird hunting in South Texas, and saltwater fishing in the Laguna Madre. He especially loved to take family members or friends with him on long, meandering drives through the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Texas Hill Country and he liked to stop and read all of the historical markers. Dad is survived by his three children: Joseph von Rosenberg III and his wife Sharon, of Houston, Texas; Karen Holtzer and her husband Matt, of Alpharetta, Georgia; and Karla Edwards and her husband Ron, of Marietta, Georgia. He also is survived by his siblings: Ann Moses and her husband Bob, of Austin, Texas; Arthur von Rosenberg and his wife Frances, of Spring Branch, Texas; and Robert von Rosenberg and his wife Sue, of San Marcos, Texas. Finally, Dad is survived by ten grandchildren, who lovingly knew him as “Pa Pa.” A graveside service will be held on Sunday, May 23, 2004, at 3:00 p.m., at Oakwood Cemetery Annex, 16th Street at I-35, in Austin, Texas. Arrangements by Wilke-Clay-Fish Funeral Home, 2620 S. Congress, Austin, Texas 78704 (512) 442-1446. You may view memorials online at www.wcfish.com