Jean Rothenberg, 1908 - 2007
by Jim Kesner Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Dr. Jean Rothenberg with her friend Erika
Richardson, in Jean's home in Eden Park in 2003.
In 1950, Jean established the Cincinnati Speech and Hearing Center (now the Hearing, Speech and Deaf Center of Greater Cincinnati) to provide rehabilitation research and public education about hearing loss. Dr. Rothenberg served as its first president of the board and hired the first director in 1955. Despite lacking any college degrees, Jean worked at the Center as an adult aural rehabilitationist, earning the highest respect from professionals in the field world-wide. She worked with the most difficult cases that audiologists wouldn't accept and with high-profile cases who experienced sudden hearing loss; teaching them to lip-read with the aid of her vast array of jokes.
In 1963, she persuaded the Fresh Air and Convalescent Aid Society to deed their land and assets worth $600,000 to start the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. Jean began wearing a hearing-aid when they became available in a suitcase, then graduated to the 2-pack variety in which a battery was strapped to one leg and a microphone to the other, providing her with a rich source of colorful stories of hijinks that she loved to regale. Dr. Rothenberg was selected one of the Enquirer Woman of the Year in 1982, received the United Way Mitchell Award for community service and leadership in 1993, and was awarded honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1994 for her speech and hearing work in the community.
As bright as anyone and more intelligent than most - with or without an advanced degree - Jean understood people and how they interact with each other. She played bridge one-two times a week with friends for more than 45 years, and seemed to either know or be related to everyone in the world. She drove perfectly well and lived independently in her home near Eden Park until she was 96 years old, maintained a schedule that would exhaust people one-third her age, and accompanied a group of friends weekly to watch and discuss alternative films until she was 97. She had a mind and wit that were sharp beyond compare, mastered and used email with proficiency and efficiency until her last year, and made decadently delicious brownies. She suffered no fools and was generous with her compliments when they were deserved.
Travels with her husband, Bob, took them to South Africa, India, Russia, and London among other destinations. She cherished singing in the May Festival and the Plum Street Temple choir, generously supported the arts, attended the Cincinnati Symphony religiously, and savored Skyline chili and Graeter's ice cream. She had a penetrating glare that defied anyone who attempted deception, and a smile that could melt your heart. Until the very end, she was as mischievous as a child, wielded sarcasm like a knife, and raised the level of intelligence and discourse simply through conversation and discussion. She has left the hearing-impaired with a more accessible world, her many friends with richer lives, more than a few scoundrels a bit wiser, and the world's greater community a better place to live.
Dr. Jean W. Rothenberg was the beloved wife of the late Dr. Robert C. Rothenberg, the devoted mother of Claire R. Grossman of Nashua, NH, and Jo Anne R. Travis of St. Louis, MO, the dear sister of the late Ferdinand L. and Leo F. Weston and Joseph Westheimer, the loving grandmother of seven grandchildren, and great grandmother of thirteen. In lieu of flowers, please contribute memorials to the Greater Cincinnati Foundation Jean W. Rothenberg Fund for Better Hearing, 200 West 4th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202.
