Born in Detroit, Michigan on August 4, 1926 to Vincent Warclaw Rozenbaum and Elizabeth [Malc] Rozenbaum. Passed on in Lansing, Michigan on February 15, 2014 at the age of 87. He was the third of six siblings.
Nicknamed “Slim” because of his lean frame, he worked as a factory worker in his youth. He served as Corporal in the U.S. Army in the Korean War. He was a City of Detroit police officer at the First Precinct in downtown for 27 years, there referred to by his second nickname “Rozie”. After his retirement from the police force, he worked for many years as a security agent for a downtown law firm, escorting late-working employees to their vehicles or the bus stop.
Married to Bernadine Clara [Klonowski] Rozenbaum for 56 years. Bernadine preceded Vince in death in May 2012. Father to two children, Jessica and Scott John, and to twin stillborn girls, Genevieve and Elizabeth. He was an attentive grandfather to David M. Dale.
He was preceded by his brother, Joseph, but still has 4 surviving siblings: Dorothy Sokolowski, Theresa Kevnick, Frank Rozenbaum, and Lawrence Rozenbaum. He was known as Uncle Slim or Uncle Vince to three generations of nephews and nieces.
Vince’s life highlights: marrying Bernadine, being a father for nearly 55 years, various travels, commuting between Detroit. Michigan and Lake Havasu City, Arizona, living part-time in Arizona in the early 1970s, a gold panning trip in California after retiring from the police force, and originally clearing land and maintaining a cottage outside of Graying in Crawford County for 47 years.
Vince was a kind, skilled, and organized man, appreciated for his humor and huge heart, and as restaurant wait staff knew, a good tipper. He wrote amazing letters, and was especially profuse when work kept him far from his wife and children; it wasn’t unusual to receive an eight-page hand-written letter from him. He enjoyed cultivating relationships with favorite wait staff and restaurant owners, employees at the Williamston Post Office and Okemos Meijers, and his neighbors.
Grayling was known as Rozenbaum’s Retreat. He loved the out-of-doors, always puttering away on projects, and responsible for planting multiple tens of thousands of trees at his property Up North. If you visited the place, he would name a tree in your honor. He built the prefab garage with his brother in law and 6 kids holding up the walls. He built a roof over the trailer with the help of his policemen friends and with Scott and Jessica building the trusses.
Vince and Bernadine lived in many places. Detroit, Lake Havasu City, Canton, Northville, and finally, Williamston, where he had lived for the past 24 years. He will be sorely missed by all, but now he is with the love of his life and no longer ailing.
A Memorial Mass will be held Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 10:30 AM at St. Edith Church, Livonia, Michigan.
Arrangements were handled by Gorsline Runciman Funeral Home.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18