Bruce M. Rose, 1949-2025

Obituary from family:

Bruce M. Rose passed away peacefully at home on Saturday, February 22, 2025, shortly after entering hospice care. He was born on December 8,1949 and grew up in Edgewood, Maryland, the eldest son of the late Barbara E. Rose and Henry A. Rose.

Bruce graduated from Edgewood High School and completed his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1971, majoring in Philosophy. He was a member of the Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity and made treasured friendships that lasted his lifetime.

In Chicago, Bruce attended Loyola University School of Law and was admitted to the bar in 1979. He always said he chose the law because it was a natural choice for a philosophy major. He started his legal career as an Assistant State’s Attorney, gaining experience as a criminal trial attorney, then worked in the Appeals Division. Subsequently, he moved into civil practice as a complex civil litigation lawyer with expertise in securities and commodities. After a number of years with Chicago firms, Bruce started the Law Office of Bruce Rose and maintained a solo practice for the remainder of his career which spanned 46 years.

In 1986, Bruce settled in La Grange, IL with his wife, Elisabeth Cornell and young son Andrew. His daughter, Gretchen was born soon after and the family resided in the same house for 38 years. He was active in the Main Street organization for many years, and also served on the Village Cable Commission.

Music, across many genres, was central to Bruce’s life from an early age. He learned to play guitar in college, later collecting guitars and other stringed instruments. He followed artists in folk, classic rock, the Great American Songbook, classical music, and the current music scene. His favorite artist was John Lennon. His memory was prodigious and he could recall every concert he ever attended as well as the dates, the weather on the day and the clothes he wore at each one.

Cooking became an immersive respite from his daily law work after his honeymoon in Greece and France. He trained himself, methodically following recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Patricia Wells’ bistro cookbooks. Dinner was sometimes served at a very late hour (“it took longer than I thought”) but diners were always delighted by the result. When Drew and Gretchen graduated from high school, Bruce compiled and gifted each of them a Cornell-Rose Family Cookbook containing all of the family’s favorite recipes, with an instruction that whoever cooked did not have to clean up.

Bruce loved to write and kept journals of his musings and experiences starting in his late teens; he was a keen observer of people and events, and through much of his adult life he worked on one particular novel of the 60s, in between his legal work. He was penning the last chapters at the time of his illness.

Bruce was known for his wry, irreverent sense of humor, love of puns, and a strong sense of integrity in his work and personal relationships. He was a voracious reader of non-fiction, widely knowledgeable on diverse subjects, and a news hound whether following on TV, web or radio (NPR).

Bruce will be forever missed by his wife of 42 years, Elisabeth Cornell, and children Andrew Cornell Rose and Gretchen Elisabeth Rose, son-in-law Robert Legon, sister-in-law Margaret Barton and husband Marshall Barton, and sister-in-law Mary Taradash, as well as nieces and nephews.

A memorial celebration of his life will be held at a future date. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to National Public Radio or local NPR station WBEZ Chicago.