WILPF’s Rose Mellman Daitsman

Rose Daitsman, a pioneering educator and human rights activist, passed away in late July in Milwaukee WI. Described as a “force of nature,” Ms. Daitsman’s indefatigable energy and strong sense of justice and equity led her to advocate for, and create, social change in an array of fields throughout her long and accomplished life.  Rose mentored the establishment of WILPF US’s Advancing Human Rights Subcommittee on Human Trafficking.  She was the rudder for the Milwaukee Branch.  As a wise and generous leader, Rose provided counsel, mentoring and discernment for several generations of WILPF US leaders.  We extend our condolences to her three children, extended family, and all the people whose lives were richer because Rose touched them.  Her passing is a great loss for WILPF. 

Arriving in Milwaukee in 1972 with a background in Engineering (BE, Cooper Union, 1949) and Education (MA, Xavier University, 1966), Ms. Daitsman earned a position at the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She quickly realized the dearth of minority students in the school and set out to change it. University administrators soon approved a pre-college program, the Gateway to Engineering, Science, and Technology, which recruited minority students from high schools in Milwaukee to learn about the field in weekend and summer programs. As a result of the program, the College experienced a 20% increase in minority admissions. She led the program until her retirement from the university in the 1990s.

A committed anti war activist, Ms. Daitsman protested against the possible use of nuclear weapons in the Korean Conflict. Later, during the Vietnam War, she was selected to serve on a citizens’ delegation to the Paris Peace Talks in an effort to jump start the stalled negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam. Throughout her life, she continued to work with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom on the many causes that organization has championed.

Ms. Daitsman was a founding member of the Society of Women Engineers, an international organization that today celebrates its seventieth year and has over 40,000 members, and she worked through the 1950s in private industry. She took an early interest in pollution control and proposed air quality regulations as early as 1960. She was an active member of the American Society for Engineering Education and would travel to annual conferences sharing her knowledge and expertise with colleagues from around the country.

Over the course of her long life, she has received many awards and honors, including the Frank P. Zeidler Public Service Award by the City of Milwaukee in 2016 and West End Mother of the Year in 1966 for her community work with children in the inner city of Cincinnati.

Among her many activities in Milwaukee, in 2006 Ms. Daitsman founded the Greater Milwaukee Human Rights Campaign, a coalition of 10 organizations which produced a report on the severe racial discrimination in Milwaukee that was subsequently submitted to the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. This work contributed to the resurrection of Milwaukee’ Equal Rights Commission in 2009.

Ms. Daitsman is survived by her daughter Judith, sons William and Andrew, and grandchildren Linda, Jeffrey, and Samuel. A memorial service will be held in Milwaukee in October. Donations in her memory can be addressed to Doctors Without Borders, the Daitsman Scholarship Fund of the Wisconsin Labor History Society, or Circle Pines Center in Delton, MI.