February 22, 2008

Local historian has a passion for local history

By Donna H Eliason
Staff Writer

San Jose born and raised, Jerry Rosenthal says the second half of his life is more exciting and meaningful than the first half. He loves making a difference in preserving our past and in opening opportunities for youth.

Jerry Rosenthal

Jerry attended Stanford University before he worked in the family business, The Working Man’s Store, located on Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose. From l950 to l983, he helped his father and did whatever needed to be done. During this time he became involved with the Society of California Pioneers of Santa Clara County. That’s when he found his passion was local California history, not his college major of political science, or business.

He says, “History is important because if you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you want to go. If you don’t know your history, you’re condemned to problems because you didn’t learn from past mistakes or insights.”
“People nowadays don’t know their history,” comments Jerry. “Back when I grew up, people bought beef from the butcher’s shop, chickens from the poultry shop. There weren’t grocery stores where you purchased everything.”
Every winter his dad hunted the family’s “winter meat.” As a child, Jerry learned to shoot ducks, deer and elk. Now, numerous duck decoys and books about them line his living room shelves.

Jerry became president of the Society of California Pioneers of Santa Clara County in 2003. He feels he’s been part of three lasting achievements. The first was the selling of the Cochran Ranch near Anderson Dam, which enabled the Pioneers to purchase the downtown Paulson House and move it to History Park San Jose in 1998. Then the house stood on the site of the present Children’s Discovery Museum. Mr. Paulson built this unique Queen Anne-styled home in l889. A special touch is his carved door. The home’s been renovated and contains the wood stove of famed historian Clyde Arbuckle’s wife.

His second achievement was the inclusion of the Californios in the Pioneers membership. These were culturally Spanish-speaking Californians.

He also encouraged the growth of the Digital Club House, an intergenerational program that is housed in the Paulson House. Youths from 12-18 work with adults on projects that "enrich their education, preserve history, promote public health and encourage cultural diversity.” Recent projects include personal stories of breast cancer survivors and World War II service people. A byproduct was recognition from the Library of Congress and the History Channel. Jerry and his wife Lynne moved to The Villages in 2001 from Los Gatos. One difficult decision was the sale of his extensive library because “there wasn’t enough room here.” They have a son in Seattle, and a daughter and two grandchildren in San Jose.

Has Jerry slowed down since his 85th birthday? He still enjoys research and being President Emeritus on the Pioneer’s Board of Directors. Now he’s thinking, along with others, about the possibilities of turning the boarded-up Archer Ranch home in Kelly Park into a living museum.