Dear Classmates,

I was saddened by this news and lay awake the night I heard it with remembrances of Rose, my relationship with her, and the experience of being a Proco physics major. To my surprise, there were few, if any, recollections of her "warmth" toward me while at the college. Being one of her lesser students (to put it in more kindly terms than I deserve), my memories are dominated by the red numbers that she wrote at the tops of my returned exam papers. I don't remember any single digits or negative numbers (possibly due to successful repression on my part), but almost all of them were smaller than 100, and way too many of them were smaller than 70, a source of grave concern to me at the time. The effect (intended, I now assume) of those numbers was to convince me that, if I seriously wanted to pursue a career in science, I would need to expend appreciably more effort in that pursuit. At that time in my life, "tough love" was what I needed from her far more than "warmth," and she gave me an abundance of it in those still memorable red numbers. Yet, at the ends of the semesters, she was a lot more generous to me than she needed to be, and I'm sure that a number of my final, recorded "C's" had been miraculously converted from D's or lower by her.
Her "warmth" became more apparent to me when I received my GRE scores, when I was accepted into grad school, and when I found myself competing remarkably well (for me) with classmates from Yale, MIT, and some of the other big name universities. After that, through the course of my science career, I encountered a number of branch points, and most of them led to more challenging and more interesting work, along with a deeper appreciation of the science and math that she and Fr. Willy taught. Her "warmth" was particularly evident at each of those junctures, in the realization that I would not have been there without her influence and guidance.
Apart from my immediate family, there is a pretty short list of individuals who have deeply influenced the direction and quality of my life. Rose is near the top of my list. I'm deeply thankful for her life, and for her dedication of that life to teaching us.

Best regards,
Mike Meier, Ph.D. C62

Thanks for your loving and inspired remarks about Rose. I hope that each of us feels the same way about one or more of our teachers at Proco.

Here's her obituary from the Chicago Tribune. - John McGuinn C62

Rose A. Carney
Rose A. Carney, Ph.D., age 86, a resident of the Lisle/Naperville, IL area since 1948, died on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007. She was born April 30, 1920 in Chicago to the late James and Rose Carney. Rose grew up on Chicago's South Side and was a 1938 graduate of Visitation High School. She received her B.S. in physics from DePaul University and her Ph.D. in physics from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), where she was a National Science Foundation Faculty Fellow. Rose worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Chicago on the Manhattan Project, taught physics and mathematics at DePaul and was an Assistant Professor of Physics and Mathematics at St. Xavier College, all in Chicago. In 1948, Rose began a 42 year tenure at St. Procopius College (formerly Illinois Benedictine College, now Benedictine University), Lisle, where she was Professor of Physics and Mathematics, served as head of the Mathematics Department for 21 years and Chairman of the Natural Sciences Division for 11 years. She also worked at Argonne National Laboratory as a Research Associate for 10 summers and was a member of Women and Mathematics (WAM). Rose retired from IBC in 1990. Upon Rose's retirement, former students and friends established the Rose Carney Scholarship in her honor. She was a longtime member of St. Joan of Arc Church and, since August 2004 resided at Villa St. Benedict in Lisle. Visitation Saturday 9 to 11 a.m. at Sacred Heart Monastery Chapel at Villa St. Benedict, 1920 Maple Ave., Lisle. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 11 a.m. Interment St. Procopius Abbey Cemetery, Lisle. In lieu of flowers, memorials to Rose A. Carney Scholarship at Benedictine University, 5700 College Rd., Lisle, IL 60532.

We received with sadness the notice of Dr. Carney's demise. My recollections as a member of the Class of '62 include that we were there when Miss Carney became Dr. Carney; we were really impressed the day she got "dolled up" for a lecture date! Our class time and training were enhanced by her dedication and vision as to what constituted a solid foundation in mathematics, the language of science. An example of her practicality included the announcement that all of the physics majors would take the shop course, including the theorists, so that we would know how things are made. (Ironically, my high school principal rejected shop because it was attended by the non-college prep students.) We were also gratified that our class included math majors almost equal in numbers to the prior crops of physics majors. She was and always will be our Rosie.

With fond remembrance, Albert J. Froelich C62

She really embodied that rare professional, a dedicated college teacher. And she could tell Al and I apart.

Jim Beaupre C62

Thank you for this notice. It has evoked a flood of memories from the mid-nineteen-sixties as I sit here at my desk in the Pentagon at 0530 hrs.

Ed Conrath C69

She was a great teacher and a dedicated scientist. I still remember her writing on my paper in Circuit Analysis when I was having "Senioritis" --"Come on Passino --give it the old college try! I think she was also responsible for getting me an assistantship at Arizona State. She was in grad school with two of my professors out there. I can still hear her very distinctive manner of speech and see her in her lab coat today. I also remember how dedicated she was to her elderly mom. Rosey---we'll miss you!

Nick Passino, Ph.D. C62

Very sad! ...a wonderful life. Thank you for sharing.
Ellie Moore C02

Thank You for the information. As a member of the class of 1963, she was one of my favorite teachers. We still as of last year exchanged Christmas cards.
She was one of the greatest people that I have ever known and will be greatly missed.

Frank J Benedix Jr C63

Thank you for sharing this...rip Dr. Carney.

Angela DeCarlo C75

I am interested in donating to that scholarship in her honor ...how would I do that?

Thanks, Marc Ahrendt C91

Thank you for including me in the notification of this sad news. Please also include me in your follow-up email regarding services.

Cindy Haack C89

Sorry to hear about this.

Christopher Hayward C94