Gertrude “Trudy” Rothman (nee Ullmann), born on February 13th, 1925, died peacefully at Calvary Hospital on August 16th, 2023. She was 98 years old. She is survived by her daughter, Vivien Tartter, her son, Andrew Rothman, her daughter-in-law, Beth Rothman, her grandchildren, Carly Siditsky (Seth), Eric Tartter (Clara), Daryl Rothman-Dick (Mike), and Alexander Tartter, and her great-grandchildren, B., Eliza, and Rayna Siditsky and Leo Rothman-Dick.
The beloved wife of John Rothman (1924-2019), Trudy was devoted to and adored by her family. A chemist and chemistry instructor at Queens College for most of her adult life, her greatest joy in her work was to help educationally disadvantaged college students succeed in chemistry, and to achieve careers in medicine and the hard sciences.
Trudy grew up in Jackson Heights, New York, graduated from Queens College in 1944, worked briefly during the war as a research assistant in a project to develop plastics for use in military nose cones, and went on to earn a Master of Science degree in Chemistry from Brooklyn Polytechnical Institute in 1949. She taught General Chemistry at Queens College for four decades. After retiring from teaching, she dedicated her later years to volunteer work as a dispute mediator for the Better Business Bureau. A great lover of nature and wildlife, Trudy and her beloved husband John devoted much of their leisure time to world travel, experiencing all seven continents and visiting some of the most remote parts of the world.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Trudy Rothman Chemistry Award Endowment through the Queens College Office of Institution Advancement, an endowment Trudy originated in her retirement, or to Calvary Hospital, which with its care and kindness helped her to pass with such ease.
