Gerson Max Rosenthal Jr. ’43

Gerson Max Rosenthal Jr. ’43 died April 4, 2011. Gus graduated from Pittsfield (Massachusetts) High School, where he worked on the yearbook and was a member of the ski team for three years—its captain as a senior. At Dartmouth he majored in zoology. In March of 1943 he became an Army Air Force private studying meteorology at Brown University. This was followed by training at M.I.T., and he then spent the war as a weather and operations officer at several stateside posts. After the war he spent several years at the University of Chicago as a research assistant in zoology before going to the University of California, Berkeley, where, in 1954, he earned his Ph.D. in ecological studies. Gus then returned to the College of the University of Chicago as an associate professor of biology. As well as teaching, Gus was involved in investigation into ecological problems concerning the flow of energy and materials in biological communities, some of the work taking place at the Oak Ridge and Argonne national laboratories. He was also a director of a summer program for teachers and gifted students from outstanding high schools, supported by the National Science Foundation. Gus was class agent in 1988. After Gus retired in 1991 he and his wife, the former Marcia Robinson White—whom he had married in Hanover’s White Church in 1954—enjoyed travel, music, theater and gardening and Gus became active in local civic affairs. 
Gus is survived by his son Jonathan; Marcia predeceased him.