Former Denver City Council member J. Ivanhoe “Ivan” Rosenberg, an instrumental advocate for the in downtown Denver and of seven community newspapers including , died Aug. 4 in Carbondale. He was 93.
Rosenberg was born in Powell, Wyo., to Judith and Joseph Rosenberg. Five years later, he moved to Denver, where his father founded
He attended Barnum Elementary School and West High School, as his own children did years later. Although he sometimes traveled, Rosenberg spent most of his life in Denver, including 67 years in the same house that he decorated annually for Halloween and Christmas.
The Rosenberg family’s venture into the was prompted four years after they moved to Denver, when members of the burned a cross on their lawn.
“My dad was 9 years old, and that was when my grandfather decided to start the Barnum News to — his words — ‘expose the bastards,’ ” said I.V. Rosenberg, one of Ivan Rosenberg’s sons. “That’s how we got in the newspaper business.”
The Barnum News spawned six other weekly community newspapers, and the . Ivan Rosenberg assumed the family business in 1950, taming the flagship paper’s once semi-profane motto to “The only newspaper in the world that gives a darn about southwest Denver.”
“For 50 years, every week, regardless of what happened in his life, every week, he put out a paper,” his son said.
In 1970, Rosenberg was elected to the Denver City Council, serving from 1971 to 1975. During his tenure, he galvanized the campaign to turn downtown Denver’s into a well-lit , a bid to lure back shoppers who abandoned downtown stores for suburban malls.
Rosenberg was 19 when he married his high school sweetheart, Shirley Hall. Their 47-year marriage ended when she died of breast cancer in 1985. He never married again.
“My dad was a very detail-oriented person,” his son said. “He was always curious, always inquisitive. Retirement, for him, was never a concept. He stayed busy. He was bull-headed, sometimes to the point of aggravation.
“True story: My dad and I attended many, many funerals over the years. Dad always had candy in his pocket. We’d be sitting in the pew, and he’d take out a piece of red licorice and hand it to me. I’d say, ‘No, no, Dad!’ and the only way to make him stop was to take the licorice. I told my dad he’d have a pack of red licorice in his pocket at his funeral. And he did.”
Rosenberg’s close companion, Gina Lauver, was with him when he suffered a fatal stroke during a trip to Carbondale for a family reunion.
Survivors include daughters Margie Linnen of Aurora, Donna Donati of Lafayette and Illene Neff of Blue Bell, Penn.; sons Gary Rosenberg of Denver, Joe Rosenberg of Westminster, I.V. Rosenberg of Boulder; 16 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and seven great-great grandchildren. At Ivan Rosenberg’s request, the family suggests memorial donations to the to benefit .
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
