Peter Rose ‘54, friend and generous donor to ̽̽, passed away on March 20, 2020 due to complications from a stroke. Peter served on the advisory board of the ̽̽ Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources from 1996 until 2016.
Peter received a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from ̽̽. Nearly forty years later, in 1993, he earned a master’s degree in environmental studies from Bard College and began devoting the latter half of his life to environmental affairs, especially to the conservation of sea turtles. An article in The New York Times in the mid-1990s about the then-named ̽̽ School of Natural Resources brought Peter back to the ̽̽ campus where he began his long association with the School through then Dean Donald DeHayes and former Dean Lawrence Forcier.
At the time, the School was building the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory on the Lake Champlain waterfront, and Peter donated $100,000 to support construction and outfitting of a microscope lab in the new facility. Peter joined the Rubenstein School Board of Advisors in 1996 and spent more than twenty years contributing to the School and its students.
He established the DeHayes Multicultural Scholarship Fund in 2006 to continue Don’s legacy of enhancing diversity in the School by attracting multicultural students. Peter also endowed the Chrysalis Graduate Fund in the Rubenstein School to support students pursuing graduate degrees, particularly at the doctoral level. In 2014, Peter gave the initial seed money to explore the feasibility of the Economics of the Anthropocene, a graduate research and training partnership designed to improve how social sciences and humanities connect to ecological and economic realities and challenges of the Anthropocene period. Peter continued to support the program based at McGill University, York University, and ̽̽.
In 2019, the year before his death, Peter made a $1 million gift to support the use of research vessels by the Rubenstein Lab. The gift created a permanently endowed fund that will yield vital annual support for the operation, maintenance, and repair of the Lab’s fleet of watercraft and their instrumentation. The “Melosira Forever Fund,” as it is known, was named by Peter in honor of ̽̽’s current flagship research vessel, which has been the backbone of the Rubenstein Lab’s work for more than thirty years.
“We are sad at the passing of Peter Rose and greatly appreciate his twenty years of service as a member of the Board of Advisors and his unwavering support of the Rubenstein School,” said Dean Nancy Mathews. "His passion for freshwater research in the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory and graduate student success enriched our research program and transformed the lives of many graduate students. Peter’s sincere appreciation for the people and work of the Rubenstein School was felt in many ways. We shall miss Peter as a cherished friend of the School.”