Harry Rosen, 84, typesetter

Harry Rosen, 84, of Center City, a former typesetter and music director, died of complications from heart failure Monday at Hahnemann University Hospital.

A native of New York City, Mr. Rosen was an Army rifleman in Italy during World War II. After his discharge, Mr. Rosen, who had been a cantor in Orthodox congregations in his youth, was accepted at the Juilliard School. He hoped to study piano and conducting, but had to help support his family so he became a typesetter, said his wife, Sylvia Weinstock Rosen.

They had met when he was best man at a wedding in Philadelphia and she was a guest. They married in 1950 and settled in the Northeast.

For 25 years, Mr. Rosen worked for Leon Segal Typesetting in Philadelphia, and in the 1970s he was briefly a typesetter for The Inquirer. Then, responding to changes in the printing industry, he became a freelance proofreader for the Curtis Publishing Co. He retired in 2000.

Mr. Rosen never gave up his music, his wife said. While working, he studied at the Philadelphia Music Academy. For 20 years, he was backstage choral conductor and stage manager for the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company, and from 1978 until 2003 he was music director at Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley. In recent years he gave "Sing Along With Harry" performances at the Jewish Community Center in Northeast Philadelphia and at local retirement homes. He played piano and sang Yiddish and Hebrew songs as well as Broadway show tunes, his wife said.

The couple regularly attended performances of the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Pennsylvania Ballet.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Rosen is survived by daughters Francine Duncan and Lisa Hawkins; a brother; and four grandchildren.

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks, 6410 N. Broad St., Philadelphia. Burial will be in Shalom Memorial Park in Huntingdon Valley.