Edward H. Rosen, 87, of Bryn Mawr, businessman

Edward H. Rosen, 87, of Bryn Mawr, a businessman and philanthropist in Philadelphia's Jewish community who funded a Hillel life center on the Temple University campus, died Wednesday, Oct. 1, at Lankenau Hospital.

Mr. Rosen had been diagnosed a week ago with bile duct cancer, said his wife, Evelyn Bodek Rosen. Up until then, he had been healthy and vigorous.

In his role as a businessman, Mr. Rosen was president of Raymond Rosen & Co., Inc., the Philadelphia firm founded by his father. The company is no longer in business.

Mr. Rosen was president from 1981 to 1984 of what is now the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

He worked to streamline the agency's organizational structure, and guided the group's first Jewish population study in the Philadelphia area.

He also directed the group's allocations and planning prior to 1981 and chaired the agency's Task Force on Refugee Resettlement. He cochaired the federation's 1985 fund-raising campaign.

His family said he was so moved by visiting Poland and Israel during a federation mission that he took on an extra leadership role with the group once he returned home.

In 2009, officials dedicated the $8 million, 10,500-square-foot Edward H. Rosen Hillel Center for Jewish Life on the Temple campus. It is run by Hillel of Greater Philadelphia. "It was among his proudest moments," his wife said.

A Germantown Friends and Yale University graduate, he was a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. He helped design the memorial, and when it opened in 1993, attended a special dedication ceremony. "It was fabulous," his wife said.

He was a vice president of the regional United Way; and president of the Golden Slipper Club and what was then the Jewish Y's and Centers of Greater Philadelphia.

Mr. Rosen was a past president and board chairman of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Jewish Committee, commissioner of the Philadelphia Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and served as a board member of the Pennsylvania Foundation for Independent Colleges.

He also was a board member of Akiba Hebrew Academy, which is now the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr.

"Ed Rosen was bigger than life. He was his own solar system. He was the sun that warmed us with his energy and his jokes," his wife said. He loved whittling, identifying birdsongs, and playing the piano, and was a skilled debater.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughters Liz Rosen-Ducat, Lesley Hirsh, Jillian Herschkowitz, Elizabeth Murdoch and Alexandra Seres; sons, Scott R. Isdaner and Tom Rosen; 19 grandchildren, and a great-grandchild. He was previously married to Elaine Strauss. They divorced; she is deceased.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at Joseph Levine & Sons Memorial Chapel, 4737 Street Rd., Trevose. Burial is in Roosevelt Memorial Park.

Contributions may be made to the Edward H. Rosen Center for Jewish Life, 1441 Norris St., Philadelphia 19121.