Ernst Rosenzweig, brother of long time GNHLHA member Irmgard R. Wessel and uncle of life member Paul Wessel, passed away on January 4^th. From the obituary in the New Haven REGISTER, January 5, 2011: “Known as ‘Rosie’ to his co-workers, he worked on the Yale University grounds crew for many years and was an active member of Local 35, UNITE HERE. A horticulturalist, he had a long standing affection for trees, flowers and the beauty of nature. Ernst was born in Kassel, Germany, on October 4, 1922 to the late Louis and Grete Rosenzweig. He left Germany for England at age 16, and joined his parents and his sister in the U.S. in Eureka, Il. in 1947 and later moved to New Haven.”

Irm Wessel remembers her brother as a committed union member who “never missed a picket line” and was buoyed up in his later years by the health pension support he received as a retiree.  One of his duties as a grounds crew worker was to rise at 4 o’clock in the morning in the event of snow to shovel the walkway at Kline Tower - by hand. In his last hours of life, he knew it was snowing hard outside, and he asked for two shovels so that he might begin to clean off the sidewalk, Irm said.