Timothy Laurence Rose, 85
Timothy Laurence Rose, 85, of Acton, passed away on Sunday, August 16, 2026.
Tim was born on July 6, 1941, in Cleveland. He was the son of Abram John Rose and Marguerite Kopmeier Knudson and the brother of the late Jonathan William Rose. In 1950, he moved to Milwaukee, where he attended the Milwaukee Country Day School. In 1963, Tim graduated from Haverford College with a B.A. in chemistry, having co-captained the soccer team and led the student council as president his senior year. He then received his doctorate in chemistry from Yale University, followed by a postdoctoral position in the physics department at the University of Freiburg, Germany.
After starting his professional life as a professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University from 1969 until 1976, he moved to Acton to undertake a two-year Senior National Research Council Fellowship at the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory in Bedford. Tim then joined EIC Laboratories in Norwood and conducted research in the areas of neural prostheses, solar energy, chemical weapon defense, and conductive polymers. In 1998, he retired and began a 15-year career teaching chemistry at Brandeis University as a visiting professor.
Tim valued science and education throughout his life. He was a member of the American Chemical Society, Sigma Xi, a fellow of the American Institute Chemists, and president and secretary of the New England Institute of Chemists. He served on Acton’s Board of Health in the 1990s and continued assisting the town with concerns relating to Nuclear Metals Inc. and the subsequent Superfund site. He was respected as a voice of reason and trusted by both regulators and environmental advocates alike.
In his retirement, Tim and his wife loved spending time in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, playing bridge, gardening, and traveling. He was a member of the Boston Mycology Club and co-chaired the New England Mycology Foray in 2009. He was an avid downhill and cross-country skier as well as an enthusiastic pickleball player. He spent his summers playing golf with the Bogey Boys at the Acton Country Club.
Tim is survived by his wife of 63 years Nina Roberts Rose; their three children Thomas of Dubois, Wyoming William of Milton, Vermont, and Hilary of Boston; and four grandchildren.
Services will be private.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Acton. To share a memory or a condolence on Tim’s tribute page, visit DeeFuneralHome.com.
