(April 5, 2000) — Sandra Priest Rose has been elected an Honorary Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced this week by Museum Chairman James R. Houghton. Mrs. Rose's election took place at the March 14 meeting of the Board of Trustees.
A longtime Museum benefactor who, with her late husband, Frederick Phineas Rose, funded in 1997 a $2 million teacher training initiative at the Metropolitan, Mrs. Rose is a veteran educator and reading skills advocate as well as a leading philanthropist in the areas of education and culture. Together, Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose helped reshape the cultural landscape of New York City in recent years, funding major expansion and rebuilding projects at Lincoln Center, the New York Public Library, and the American Museum of Natural History (the recently opened Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space), while contributing significant funding and construction expertise to building programs at the Metropolitan Museum.
"For many years, Fred Rose was a respected and beloved Museum Trustee, whose generosity and wisdom helped guide us," commented Mr. Houghton. "And as a team, Fred and Sandy Rose have been enlightened and important funders of a number of groundbreaking educational initiatives at the Metropolitan. We are especially pleased that Sandy has now agreed to continue the family tradition by joining our board as an Honorary Trustee. We know that she has much to offer, and we look forward to welcoming her anew as a colleague on our Board."
A graduate of Manhattanville College with an advanced degree in learning disabilities from the College of New Rochelle, Sandra Priest Rose spent 14 years as an elementary school, junior high school, and high school teacher in both the Bronx and Westchester. From 1977 through 1981 she was a reading consultant to the Basic Skills Center Reading Program in Community School District Nine in the Bronx. She was a founder in 1981 of the Reading Reform Foundation of New York, an organization that trains public school teachers to teach reading effectively.
Mrs. Rose is a trustee of the New York Public Library and the Hebrew Technical Institute. She is a former trustee of Manhattanville College, the Federation Employment
and Guidance Service, the National Book Foundation, and the Volunteer Corps of New York City, and a onetime member of the executive council of Metro Center at the New York University School of Education, Nursing and Arts Professions.
Mr. and Mrs. Rose's 1997 gift for teacher training at the Metropolitan was the largest gift ever received by an American art museum for that purpose. Their grant funds the preparation and distribution of teacher resource materials on the Museum's permanent collections, and supports the establishment of professional development workshops that assist the city's teachers in using the new materials.
Among her many awards and honors are an honorary doctorate from Manhattanville College and the Harriet H. Jonas Human Relations Award of the American Jewish Committee.
####
April 5, 2000
Press resources