Obituary of Matthew Rosenshine

Matthew Rosenshine, 83, of State College, Professor Emeritus of Industrial Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, died on Thursday, June 11, 2015, at Mount Nittany Medical Center. Born May 25, 1932 in New York City, he was the son of Aaron and Anna (Zuckerman) Rosenshine of Long Island City, Queens. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan in 1949, won a New York State Regents Scholarship, and received his A.B. in Liberal Arts with Science Emphasis in 1952 and M.A. in Mathematics Education in 1953 from Columbia University. He began his professional career as an aerodynamicist at Bell Aircraft Corporation in Niagara Falls, New York, then took leave to complete an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1956. After serving in the U.S. Army as a mathematician, he joined the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory of Cornell University in Buffalo, New York in 1958. He completed his Ph.D. in Operations Research Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1966, and in 1968 joined the Department of Industrial Engineering at Penn State, where he remained for the rest of his career. His research specialized in Operations Research, Queueing Theory, and Stochastic Processes, including Air Traffic Control Systems Modeling, Control of Queues, and Applications of Stochastic Processes to Robotics. He believed that a commitment to teaching is also a faculty obligation, taught honorably at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and served as advisor or committee member to many Ph.D. and Master's degree candidates. He authored more than 25 refereed journal publications and numerous additional research reports and presentations at national and international professional meetings. Honored with membership in the academic societies Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Pi Mu, Omega Rho, and Pi Mu Epsilon, he also held sabbatical appointments as Visiting Professor of Civil Engineering at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Industrial Engineering at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; served as a consultant to Calspan Corporation in Buffalo, Xerox Corporation in Rochester, and the U.S. Federal Energy Administration and Federal Railroad Administration in Washington; and served as a member of the Franklin Institute Committee on Arts and Sciences in Philadelphia. At the time of his retirement in 1992, he was the Director of Academic Affairs at Penn State Great Valley in Malvern, Pennsylvania. In his retirement, he took great pride in continuing to work with the Operations Research and Management Sciences professional society INFORMS to bring better practical understanding of probability, statistics, and concepts of Operations Research to teachers and students at the high school level. He enjoyed racquetball and watching competitive sports, including Penn State Football and Basketball, and enjoyed a lifelong love of travel, particularly road trips through the United States and Canada. He was a member of Congregation Agudath Achim of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Dr. Rosenshine is survived by his wife of 57 years, Charlotte (Jaffe) Rosenshine of State College; sons Howard (Sharon) of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and Arnold of Evanston, Illinois; brother Allen (Missy) of Old Lyme, Connecticut and New York City; granddaughters Sarah and Danielle, to whom he loved being a true doting grandfather; and nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 15, 2015, at Koch Funeral Home, 2401 South Atherton Street, State College, with Rabbi Josh Wohl officiating. Interment will follow at Centre County Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Rob Brooks Fund for Personalized Prostate Cancer Care through the NorthShore University HealthSystem Foundation, 1033 University Place, Suite 450, Evanston, Illinois 60201; online at https://foundation.northshore.org/donate; or by telephone at (224) 364-7200. Arrangements are under the care of Koch Funeral Home, State College. Online condolences and signing the guest book may be entered at www.kochfuneralhome.com.