Andrew Rosenberger
The Rev. Andrew Rosenberger, parish minister, apple farmer and conservationist, died at age 94 in Concord, New Hampshire, on May 31, 2013.
In addition to a thirty-five year career in parish ministry, Mr. Rosenberger spent a life- time actively involved in various civic causes. For over fifty years, he chaired the Board of Trustees of the Protestant Guild for the Blind, during which time the Guild greatly expanded its reach, serving children at the Perkins School for the Blind as well as other visually handicapped and blind people. He was also president of the Wellesley (Mass.) School Board; a founding member of the Unitarian Christian Fellowship in Groton (Mass.), and president of the Groton Council of Churches.
An early advocate of healthy living, Andrew Rosenberger lectured widely on health and nutrition and published Eat Your Way to Better Health (Bobbs-Merrill, 1961), a healthy food and lifestyle manual, considered in some circles to have been twenty years ahead of its time. This interest in health led him, in retirement, to purchase Hillbrook Orchards, an eighty acre apple orchard in Groton. Andrew, with his wife, thus fulfilled a long-held desire to work the land, growing apples and peaches, pumpkins and strawberries, living as a true steward of the land and an ardent conservationist. Hillbrook Orchards became for many years a popular pick-your-own destination for apple lovers from all over Massachusetts, and the Rev. Mr. Rosenberger would conduct sunrise worship services among the apple blossoms atop the orchard’s highest hill.
Reflecting on a life of gratitude, Andrew Rosenberger memorably wrote:
“If I were to make a short list of my gratitude to others at this time, it would include: my mother and father whose faith, hope, love and benevolent spirit inspired me to enter the ministry; Harvard College and Har- vard Divinity School which helped me to prepare for that sacred calling; my marriage to Willamena Parks whom I had courted for three years at Radcliffe before our wedding at Christ Church in Cambridge a week after graduation; and the intimate contacts with men and women and children in the churches I served in nearly every condition and circumstance, sharing their births and deaths, hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, successes and disappointments, as I tried in some small measure to help make their lives a little better and more meaningful… The longer I live, the more important it seems to me for all of us to be engaged in some form of human service. To find real satisfaction and true peace of mind, we have to recognize at least a few of the endless opportunities to fulfill our obligation to life by tangibly reaching out to the physically and mentally challenged — the often forgotten people who need our help so badly, more than ever, because of the systematic reduction in public funding for their care and support. When Billie and I look at our fifty-five years of happily married life together with our four children and their spouses, our ten grandchildren, and our great grandchild, all of whom have filled our lives with abiding joy, we enter our golden years together with heartfelt thanks for all our blessings and with great expectations for the days ahead.”
Andrew Rosenberger is survived by a daughter, Wilhelmina Gustavson; three sons, Eric, Karl, and Leif Rosen- berger; ten grandchildren; and five great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Willamena (“Billie”) Parks Rosenberger.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the First Parish Church, 1 Powder House Road, Groton, Massachusetts 01450, and notes of condolence may be sent to Eric Rosenberger at 29 Auburn St, Concord, New Hampshire 03301.