Former AD Rose, 95, dies

Chris McCarty

Former CMU Athletic Director Dan Rose never forgot names and faces, even years after first learning them — and Central and the Mount Pleasant Community soon will not forget him.

The man after which Rose Arena is named died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at Isabella County Medical Care Facility, 1222 North Drive, in Mount Pleasant. He was 95.

A coach and teacher, Rose would walk into the classroom the first day of school, consult his attendance book, identify faces and come to class the following day knowing all the students’ names.

“Once he met you he never forgot you,” said his son Dan S. Rose, a retired Chippewa Hills basketball coach and teacher.

He never used notes to teach his health education courses and could remember basketball plays from games long past, said family friend Olga Denison.

“He had a tremendous mind and memory,” said Clarence Tuma, a student and player for Rose. “He would know everyone on campus. There isn’t anyone who can do that now.”

After World War II, Tuma decided he wanted to go to college and set out to hitchhike from the Detroit area to Mount Pleasant. Rose picked him up and not only brought him to Central, but introduced him to former President Charles Anspach, former football Coach Ron Finch and the dean of students.

“I have never been so welcomed in such a short period of time,” Tuma said.

This type of behavior was typical for Rose.

“More than anything he valued and respected people,” his son said.

Rose used these principles to guide his basketball teams. He began coaching Central basketball in 1937.

“He was tough, and you became tough. He wouldn’t put up with anything, fair but firm,” said friend and former CMU basketball player Ted Kjolhede, who served as athletic director after Rose retired in 1972.

His players often called him a friend. He allowed them to call him “Danny” and in the late 1930s and early 1940s he was considered an honorary member of the “Cherry Street Gang” — a group of athletes who were the first to live unsupervised off campus, Denison said.

Rose’s trademark was a long cigar and he often played harmless practical jokes on unsuspecting staff members, Kjolhede said.

He once told a rookie track coach he could practice hurdles in the halls of Warriner, which the trusting young coach did, and knocked down the president, Kjolhede said.

Despite the fun, Rose’s teams won more than 65 percent of the games they played.

“He was very successful as a basketball coach,” said Herb Deromedi, CMU athletic director.

Before becoming basketball coach he played basketball at University of Michigan from 1927 to 1930. There he helped his team beat University of Notre Dame, a school who told him he was too small to be a player.

“He was physically not very tall,” Rose’s son said. “There was a lot of energy packed into one small package.”

That energy spilled over into the Rose’s later years. Most people, once their health requires them to enter a medical care facility, only live two or three more years. Rose spent 11 years in the Mount Pleasant facility, his son said.

After graduating, Rose, who grew up in Rogers City, coached former President Gerald Ford at South High School in Grand Rapids. Rose called Ford, who attended the Rose Arena dedication in the 1970s, a friend.

In 1932, Rose married Bobbie Stacy in Grand Rapids. They raised two children.

“He was a family man, very jovial,” said Mary Thatcher, his neighbor of more than 25 years.

He temporarily abandoned his CMU duties in 1942 to serve in the U.S. Navy, for which he acted as a Lt. Commander. He also was a past president of the Mount Pleasant Lyons Club, served on the Mount Pleasant Board of Education and was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 209 S. Franklin St.

After his retirement, Rose still frequented CMU athletic events, acting as a good-will ambassador, “bragging up Central,” his son said.

“He is a fixture at CMU,” Denison said. “One of the last of the ancient Central boys.”

He is survived by his daughter Sandra Bellinger and her husband Page Bellinger of Moline, Ill., Dan S. Rose, two grandchildren and two great-grand children. He is preceded in death by his wife, who died in 1984.

Memorial contributions can be sent to the Bobbie and Dan Rose Memorial Fund at CMU. Envelopes are available at Helms Funeral Home, 330 S. University Ave.