“Gene”
Eugene L. Rose (“Gene”) was born June 10, 1923, in Salt Lake City to Erma and Louis Rose. He died peacefully on January 15, 2018, at the age of 94. He grew up in Salt Lake City and for a brief time in Los Angeles, following the divorce of his parents.
After his return to Salt Lake City, he attended and graduated from West High School. While attending West he met his high school sweetheart, Mary Morris, and married her following their graduation. They had two children: James and Judith. Following Mary’s death in 1995, Gene married Cherryl Lund.
In 1939 at the age of 16, Gene took over a failing business his stepfather had started and founded
Loftus Novelty, which quickly became a Main Street institution in downtown Salt Lake City. Generations of young people regularly spent Saturdays at the matinee at the Utah Theater and then went to Loftus Novelty to buy gag items and be dazzled by Gene’s demonstrations of magic tricks. Too shy to pursue a magic career on his own, Gene thrived on baffling his customers with sleight of hand card and coin magic. In the 1970s, Gene decided to move Loftus Novelty to a wholesale only format and moved into his first warehouse. Since then the business has flourished and continues to grow. In the 1980s, Gene decided to change the name to Loftus International to reflect the changing nature of the business. Loftus always gave Gene a great sense of pride and accomplishment throughout his life.
Gene was preceded in death by his parents and his first wife, Mary. He is survived by Cherryl and his two children: James (George Henry) Rose and Judith (Bjorn) Ablad, stepson Scott (Linda) Lund, his two grandchildren, Eric and Rebecca, and great grandchild, Edith.
A graveside service will be held at 2:00 pm Friday, January 26th, 2018, at Wasatch Lawn, 3401 South Highland Drive, with a visitation 1 hour prior to the graveside service.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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