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Golf Champion Louise ‘Bobbie’ Rose Dies at 104
OB ITUARY
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
LOUISE “BOBBIE” ROSE,
a Philadelphia Jewish Sports
Hall of Famer who played golf
competitively for 70 years, died
of a heart attack on Dec. 20
at her home in Meadowbrook.

She was 104.

Rose won 13 consecu-
tive club championships at
Ashbourne Country Club and
played in the Women’s Golf
Association of Philadelphia and
Pennsylvania State Women’s
Golf Association tourna-
ments. She won 11 Griscom
Cup championships with son
Michael Rose and four Mater
et Filia titles with daughter
Bonnie George. At 90, she
teamed with George to win the
Effie Derr Robey Cup, where
she shot better than her age five
times, and she won the 2007
WGAP Class B Super-Seniors
championship at 91. She was
inducted into the Philadelphia
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in
2014 at 98.

“Golf,” she told the Jewish
Exponent before her induc-
tion, “is the most frustrating,
irritating, imperfect, wonderful
game I’ve ever played.”
Rose loved all sports and
was an accomplished athlete
from a young age. She grew up
in Cheltenham and attended
Cheltenham High School, where
she was named a top athlete for
her prowess in swimming, tennis,
basketball and field hockey.

When she studied physical
education as an undergraduate
at Temple University, she played
badminton and qualified for a
national championship. She
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started bowling at Ashbourne
Country Club and averaged 180.

She began playing golf, which
would become her favorite
sport, when her husband Leon
Rose took it up in 1947. Her
two children also took to the
sport and went on to become
successful amateur golfers.

Michael Rose, who writes
for and publishes Great Golf
Magazine, said his mother
appreciated that golf was
a lifelong sport. Players can
constantly improve, rather
than hitting a wall in their
younger years and having their
performance decline over time.

“She was somebody who
said, ‘I’m going to get better. I
want to get better.’ In fact, one
of her little sayings was, ‘This is
going to be my year,’” he said.

The whole family was proud
of her accomplishments, and
she of theirs — especially when
her children got good enough
to beat her.

“She was our biggest fan
and we were her biggest fans. It
From left: Bobbie Rose, holds the Mater et Filia championship trophy with
daughter Bonnie George.
Courtesy of Bonnie George
She was our biggest fan and we were her biggest fans. It was a family
thing we all could do together, and we could all strive to make everybody
better.” MICHAEL ROSE
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was a family thing we all could
do together, and we could
all strive to make everybody
better,” Michael Rose said.

Bobbie Rose and her family
had strong ties to the Jewish
community. She attended Camp Council
in Phoenixville as a girl, and she
and her husband were members
of Reform Congregation
Keneseth Israel. Michael Rose
played for the Maccabi USA
men’s golf team in Israel’s inter-
national Maccabiah Games
during 1981 and 1985, and
George played for the women’s
team in 1989 and 1997.

Bobbie Rose was also an
accomplished artist. Michael
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Rose said she worked in a
wide range of mediums, from
knitting to sculpting. At age
90, she decided she wanted to
learn to weld and signed up for
a class.

She displayed and sold her
work at art shows, and the
family hopes to hold a show
in her honor when it is safe to
do so.

George, who studied art
as an undergraduate, remem-
bers her mother’s dedication
to parenting, as well as her
passion for artwork. If she
needed help with a school
project or a volunteer for a
classroom activity, Rose was
always eager to step in.

“Her creative mind was
always going, especially with
projects that I had to do,
whether it was social studies or
science,” George said.

Rose remained close with
her children as they grew older.

In addition to playing golf,
they often took trips to New
York and Florida together.

“She was just always there
for me,” George said.

Rose was preceded in death
by her husband, who died in
1974. She is survived by her
children, five grandchildren and
seven great-grandchildren. l
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