David Rosen, 86; worked with disabled

David Rosen, 86, of Vineland, an administrator in New Jersey agencies for the disabled until he retired in 1988, died after a stroke on Sunday, May 22, at South Jersey Healthcare's Vineland Health Center.

From 1971 to 1973, Mr. Rosen was the first president of the National Association of Superintendents of Public Residential Facilities for the Mentally Retarded.

In 1973-74, he was president of the American Association on Mental Deficiency.

A daughter, Diane Roach, said that in 1956, Mr. Rosen began his administrative career as director of education at the Vineland (N.J.) State School, a residential and treatment facility for mentally handicapped women.

In 1961, he became assistant superintendent there.

From 1965 to 1968, he was superintendent of the Woodbridge (N.J.) State School.

Roach said that after helping run similar operations in Washington and Michigan, he served in 1978-79 as Michigan associate director of mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

Mr. Rosen returned to New Jersey to serve from 1981 to his 1988 retirement as deputy director of community services for the New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities.

Since his retirement, Roach said, he had been a board member of the Vineland State School.

Born in the Bronx, Mr. Rosen graduated from Vineland High School in 1943, where he won the first James Parkinson Award as the school's outstanding athlete.

During World War II, he was a Marine infantryman in the Solomon and Philippine Islands and from 1949 to 1952 an officer in the New Jersey Army National Guard.

In 1949, he earned a bachelor's in education at Glassboro State College, where he was voted the football team's most valuable player in 1947.

Rosen was a linebacker and interior lineman in both high school and college, his daughter said. He was named to the Glassboro Hall of Fame for his playing on both its football team and its baseball team, where he was a catcher, she said.

While teaching special-education classes at Memorial School in Vineland from 1949 to 1956, he earned a master's in special education at Glassboro in 1954.

Mr. Rosen was a consultant on developmental disabilities to the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, among others, and advised Eunice Kennedy Shriver in organizing the Special Olympics.

Besides his daughter Diane, Mr. Rosen is survived by his wife of 59 years, Sybil; son Jeffrey; daughter Beth Parent; and two grandchildren.

A visitation was set from 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 25, at Rone Funeral Service, 1110 E. Chestnut Ave., Vineland, before an 11 a.m. funeral there, with burial in Alliance Cemetery, Norma.