School District Receives Large Gift from Rozman Trust

The David Rozman Trust has donated $63,500 to the Amherst Pelham School District.

Rozman was a 1956 graduate of Amherst High School who died at the age of 84 in June, 2024. His obituary in the Amherst College Magazine, written by his classmate David Weisfelder, states, “David graduated from Amherst High School in 1956 and was valedictorian of his class. He attended Amherst College, but his promising career in academia was cut short by a mental breakdown in his sophomore year. Over the next 60 years, David struggled with mental health issues, exploring an endless variety of therapeutic options, primarily pharmaceutical in nature. While he managed to attain an equilibrium, he was unable to pursue the career in higher education which he and his parents had envisioned. David’s father established a trust for him so that he would be able to live comfortably for the rest of his life.”

Weisfelder goes on to state that Rozman spent his life studying a wide variety of subjects, especially Judaism, although he was not a “practicing” Jew, and later other religions, art, politics, and psychology. He also collected comic books and other relics of modern culture, and he attended many of the lectures, musical performances, and art shows in the Five College area. Weisfelder concludes, “Words cannot capture how strange and sweet and fascinating a character he was.“