Russell and Juanita Rosene slides, scrapbook, and videocassette

Russell and Juanita Rosene were international development workers.

Russell David “Russ” Rosene (1922-2014) was born to Carl and Mildred Rosene in Swampscott, Massachusetts. During his teenage years the family moved to Southern California, and when not abroad Russell remained based in that area for the rest of his life. During World War II he enlisted in the U.S. military as a radio operator and served in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters. After the end of the war he married Juanita Haupt in 1946.

Juanita “Nita” Haupt Rosene (1927-) was the daughter of Horace and Claire Haupt. Though born in Oak Park, Illinois, she grew up in Los Angeles County, California, where her family moved before her third birthday. In 1946 she married Russell Rosene. The next year the couple undertook a cross-country tour of the U.S, hitchhiking from Maine to California. Their photographs from this trip were published in Life Magazine in 1948.

In 1949 the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) hired the couple as aid workers in the Gaza strip. For nearly a year Nita distributed food to refugees while Russ worked as a radio operator for the AFSC and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA). They left in 1950 and returned to California after sightseeing in Europe and visiting Russ’s brother Ken in Chile.

The Rosenes continued to travel when possible. In 1957 they got a contract to make a film for the Los Angeles Schools in Central America. The Rosenes became Quakers while in Mexico. In 1960 they took on archaeological photography work in Chihuahua, and in 1961 they joined a Voluntary International Service Assignment (VISA) program run by the AFSC in Guatemala. Russ also worked for the Peace Corps, U.N. disaster relief, and Chevron. The couple divorced in 1973.