Born Leeds, November 2, 1909. Died London, July 15, 2008, aged 98.
A volunteer for 65 years, Carl Rosen found his spiritual and communal home in the United Synagogue, which he loyally served.
Small, neat and dapper, his matching bow tie and breast pocket handkerchief complemented by his trademark brown bowler hat, he claimed that volunteering boosted his physical and psychological wellbeing.
The oldest of six children - the youngest, Jenny, survives him - Carl was the son of refugees from Russian pogroms. His scattered family, he discovered at a reunion in Israel years later, included founders of Israel's orchestra, air line and kibbutz movement, as well as a cousin whose father, Rev Joseph Rosin, JP, had served the Salisbury Hebrew Congregation in then Southern Rhodesia between both world wars.
At five, Carl moved to Dublin, living in a tiny terraced house under particularly harsh conditions. Children threw stones at him when he carried the Sefer Torah home to study. British soldiers fired in the streets during the Irish struggle for independence.
He was a bright student and fluent in Yiddish and Gaelic, which he spoke to the Irish nurses during his last illness. But although he matriculated in sciences and was a natural mathematician, working out quadratic equations in his head in his 90s, his family could not afford further education, to his lifelong regret.
At 18 he left for England. An early job with Piccadilly store Fortnum & Mason saw him sent to Buckingham Palace to fit a pair of shoes for a member of the royal household.
He took teacher training but, realising its salary limitations, became sales representative for a leading millinery firm, retiring at 75. At one stage he managed five juniors. His silver tongue made him top salesman to buyers at Harrods in Knightsbridge and the now defunct Derry & Toms in Kensington.
In 1936 he married Jean Seversky (Sievers) whom he met on a ramble in High Wycombe. They married at Bethnal Green Synagogue, lived in Paignton, and moved during the war to stay with Jean's married sister in Reading, though from 1940-45 Carl and his brother-in-law were mostly absent on war service.
Rejected as an RAF pilot because he was too short, Carl was trained as a navigator, using his amazing mathematical skills. Based in Newquay, he trained units of Polish girls, Canadian units and English units, taking them up in single-engine planes (Proctors) and twin engines (Dominos) and teaching them to transmit messages in Morse, in which he always remained proficient.
After the war the family moved to Streatham, South West London, starting off in a prefab. Serving on the Streatham and District Synagogue board of management was his introduction to communal involvement.
He was founder chairman of the Streatham Sicha (discussion) Society, represented the shul at the Board of Deputies and United Synagogue council, and sat on US council committees.
Moving to Wembley, Middlesex, in 1966 merely altered the base for the same activities. He chaired numerous synagogue committees, including membership, welfare and education, was founder chairman of Wembley Jacs cultural society, and was made the shul's first ever elder on the eve of his 88th birthday.
He served Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, as Jewish chaplain for 14 years. In all he spent some 55 years in synagogue and Board of Deputies work.
As the longest-serving deputy, he was a member of the Central Jewish Lecture committee. He lectured at schools and colleges on all aspects of Judaism, Jewish history and Irish Jews.
He never lost his soft Irish brogue or his love of debate and singing. With a clear tenor voice, he sang in choir in Streatham and in Wembley till over 90, and chanted the haftarah on Yom Kippur.
When his wife became ill and moved into Nightingale House, he visited her daily for nearly five years in the South London home until her death in 1997, and continued taking services and Seder nights for years. In his early 90s he qualified in counselling. At 92 he received his most prized honour, the Chief Rabbi's 2002 gold medal for exceptional community service.
He is survived by his son, Leon; daughter, Michelle; four granddaughters and three great-grandchildren.