Charles Henry Rosenberg

WWII Pilot and local businessman, Charles H. Rosenberg of Rockville, Maryland died Monday, March 26, 2018 at The Village at Rockville, Rockville, Maryland. Beloved husband of the late Mary S. Rosenberg; loving father of: Mary Rosenberg Prunchak (Richard), Richard Rosenberg (Michelle), Jack Rosenberg (Rosemary), and Charles (Chip) Rosenberg, Jr. (Deborah); grandfather of: Gregory Prunchak (Melissa), Eric Prunchak, Jaclyn Berlin (Peter), Corinne Rosenberg, Kelly Rosenberg, Katherine Rosenberg, and great grandfather of Maxwell Prunchak. Friends may call at Joseph Gawler’s Sons, NW Washington, DC, from 6:00 to 8:30 pm., Tuesday, April 3. A funeral service will be held at The Peace Chapel, at The Village at Rockville, with Military Honors. Contributions can be made in Charles H. Rosenberg’s name to Children’s Hospital Health System, Washington, DC.

Charles Rosenberg graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School, in Washington, DC in 1937. In the spring of 1941, Rosenberg, then a senior at the Wharton School in Philadelphia, traveled to Princeton University to present an award on behalf of his fraternity and the University of Pennsylvania. The honor was for a lifetime of achievement and the recipient was physicist Albert Einstein. Less than three years later, in the spring of 1944, Capt. Charles Rosenberg was leading a squadron of B-24 Liberator heavy bombers in a joint strike at the oil refineries at Moosbierbaum, Austria. Only half of the flight crews from his group that took off that day returned to the San Giovanni airfield in Italy. Those surviving pilots would later receive The Distinguished Flying Cross. Capt. Rosenberg’s 455th bomb group encountered the Messerschmitt 262, the world’s first operational jet fighter, and was many times escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-African American fighter squadron flying the P-51 Mustang, known today as the Red Tails. In total, he flew 51 bombing missions. He returned home to quietly raise his family in Garrett Park and Rockville, Maryland. Charles started as a buyer at The Hecht Company, and later joined Rich’s Shoes, a long--established Washington business, where he became an executive. Rich’s Shoes was the premier local high end shoe chain for many years while Mr. Rosenberg was Vice President and Senior Buyer. He saw great change in Washington over his lifetime, including the civil rights movement and the 1968 riots; he understood and supported social change. Mr. Rosenberg acquired Storm’s Shoes in the early 80’s and bought a building at 12th and E Streets when METRO construction mandated a move from the store’s original location. He ran Storm’s for ten years until his retirement. He was respected and loved by many.