Obituary of Gerald Rowe

Rowe, Gerald, age 95, passed away on Wednesday, August 30, 2023. Born on April 7, 1928 in Yonkers, NY to the late Jacob (Jack) and Ada (née Osofsky) Rosenfeld. A life-long booster for Yonkers, Gerry had abiding affection for his high school social club, the Rams, and remained connected to members of “the gang” to the end. He went to college at Syracuse University, earned a Master’s degree in English from Columbia University, and served in the intelligence unit of the US Army during the Korean War (1952-54). Never actively deployed, his years at Fort Riley, where he translated documents into Esperanto, were an enduring source of amusing anecdotes. He was a Vice President for Advertising at NBC through the 1970s and thereafter was a principal of the advertising firm Pearlman/Rowe/Kolomatsky. He and his wife, Joyce Rowe (née Allan), raised two daughters on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and cherished their ties to local New York City politics in the late 1960s and ‘70s. Gerry and Joyce’s apartment was famously the site of one of the first planning meetings of the “dump Johnson” and anti-war movements during Vietnam (see The New York Times, September 21, 1967), and Gerry wrote the now-iconic campaign slogan for Congresswoman Bella Abzug “This woman’s place is in the house – the House of Representatives!” A lover of classic Hollywood musicals, viewing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on the dance floor always brought tears to his eyes. Gerry was an enthusiast of jazz music and also an avid piano player, even in his final days. He was predeceased by his sister, Ruthellen Bellsey, his cousin and buddy in all things, Jay Orson, and his wife Joyce, to whom he was married for 63 years. Gerry is survived by his loving daughters, Claudia and Nina Rowe, along with their families – Dan, Gabriel, and Maiselle in Seattle, and Glenn and Ezra Hendler in New York. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to Jazz at Lincoln Center. Direct contacts: claudiarowe09@gmail.com and nrowe@fordham.edu.

Funeral services were handled privately.