Roselyn Louise Goldenberg wasn’t one to sit around.
She had her hands full with raising three children and with her marriage to a chemist, but Mrs. Goldenberg decided to make a career of volunteering.
Her interests were diverse: She served as president of the North Shore Hadassah, vice president of the PTA at her children’s Wilmette junior high and as a local leader for the Brownies and Girl Scouts.
When she wasn’t volunteering, Mrs. Goldenberg played bridge–one of her bridge clubs had been meeting for 50 years–and she read voraciously, devouring a novel every day or two. A relative remarked that with her passion and stamina, she could have been the president of IBM.
Mrs. Goldenberg, 88, a former longtime resident of Wilmette and supporter of Jewish causes, died Monday, June 26, in Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge of complications from a fall.
Her friends and family recalled her as the poster child of aging gracefully, an engaged woman who equally relished her roles as a mother and as a tireless volunteer.
“This woman was a role model of how to live life,” said her son-in-law Barry Kaufman.
Kaufman, who is the host and producer of the “Healthy Minute” which airs on WBBM-AM 780, said Mrs. Goldenberg was his muse, the person that he tried to gear his radio spot to. He said his mother-in-law offered him boundless encouragement.
Mrs. Goldenberg was married in 1940 to Ralph Goldenberg. She and her husband, who died in 1999, first lived in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood and moved to Wilmette in 1956.
As a youngster, she sold hot dogs at the food concession stands her father owned at the old Chicago Stadium and Riverview Park.
She graduated from Chicago’s Sullivan High School and went to Northwestern University.
During the 1950s, Mrs. Goldenberg volunteered with the Anti-Defamation League’s Dolls for Democracy Program. She visited schools and organizations, using dolls depicting famous people to talk about diversity and the importance of tolerance and understanding.
In 1972, she helped found Temple Am Shalom in Glencoe.
“She was engaging and very welcoming, which was a crucial quality to have when we starting the temple,” Rabbi Harold Kudan said.
In her later years, she lived in a Glenview retirement community. And recently, Mrs. Goldenberg took an improv class there, her daughter Arline Kaufman said. With an infectious laugh and sharp sense of humor, her mother was well-suited for comedy.
Her daughter said she was recently chatting with her mother about one of the residents.
“I didn’t know her name and I described her as being short and with white hair,” her daughter said. “My mother laughed and said, `Everyone here is short and with white hair.’ Even at the end she could make me smile.”
Mrs. Goldenberg also is survived by another daughter, Francine Schumacher; a son, Robert; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Sunday in Temple Am Shalom, 840 Vernon Ave., Glencoe.
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amadhani@tribune.com
