Morristown 'Legend,' Businesswoman, Teacher Dies at 103

Rose Danna Ruesch did just about anything and everything imaginable during her lifetime. And what a lifetime it was.

The Morristown native died recently at the amazing age of 103, according to her obituary.

Ruesch, born in New York City in 1911, moved with her parents to Morristown in 1918. After schooling and beginning her career, Ruesch settled down with her husband, Emil, and lived in the family’s Morristown home for the last 65 years.

Ruesch is not only a Morristown High School graduate of 1928, but no a member of the school’s wall of fame as a 2014 inductee.

Ruesch was one of just eight women in to pass the Bar exam in 1935, obtaining her law degree. Afterward she became an employee with Bamberger’s Corporate Headquarters in Newark where she worked for 13 years.

After Emil Ruesch died in 1963, Rose Ruesch became a teacher and mentor to the girls at the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Morris Township and then became a kindergarten teacher in the Mt. Arlington School District. She spent the next 17 years there before retiring.

In her later years, Ruesch was honored by the Morris County Chamber of Commerce as a “Female Legend” in 2006 and again in 2011 at the Morristown Founders Day as a Centenarian Lawyer for her 100th birthday.

Ruesch is survived by a son, daughter, and grandson.

Memorial donations can be made to the Morris Minutemen, Denville Animal Shelter or Friends of the Randolph Pound. A scholarship in her name will now be established at Morristown High School for a deserving college-bound student.