- Date Of Death: January 18, 2005
- State: New York
Ernest W. ‘Deac’ Rossell , 93
Troy Ernest W. ‘Deac’ Rossell , 93, formerly of Pinewoods Avenue, died Tuesday January 18, 2005 at Eddy Memorial Geriatric Center in Troy.
Born March 29, 1911 in Leon, NY, he was the son of the late Rev. Ivan E. Rossell and Fern (Reno) Rossell, and husband of the late Wilhelmina vanAlmelo Rossell. As the son of a Methodist minister who was moved to a new post every year, Deac was educated in Panama and Little Valley, NY and Albion and Sharpsville, PA. He enrolled in an architecture program at Carnegie Institute of Technology but pressures of the great depression forced him to change first to Allegheny College where he was the third generation of his family to attend and then to SUNY at Fredonia where he graduated with a degree in music.
After teaching in the public schools of Brighton and the East Greenbush Central School Districts he entered broadcasting becoming news editor and program director for radio station WTRY and studio manager of WROW in Albany with a period devoted to the inauguration of broadcasting of radio station WWSC in Glens Falls. He was manager of the organ department at Roberts Piano Company in Schenectady and manager of both the piano and organ departments at Cluett & Sons in Troy and Albany. Beginning in 1965 he worked at the NYS Department of Health, retiring in 1981 as Director of the Office of Administrative Services.
Deac was a violinist in the Youngstown Ohio Symphony, the Jamestown NY Symphony, the Fredonia Symphony, the Buffalo Symphony, the Chautauqua Symphony, the Albany Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic. He was soloist in the Chautauqua Opera Company and at the First United Presbyterian Church in Jamestown, the First Methodist Church of Falconer, the East Avenue Presbyterian Church of Rochester and the First Church of Albany, among others. He directed choirs at the First Methodist Church of Jamestown, Grace Methodist Church of Nassau, Memorial United Methodist Church of Troy (now Hope United Methodist Church in Eagle Mills) and for 18 years the First Baptist Church in Troy. He also was conductor of the Troy Vocal Society in addition to conducting special and massed choirs in the area. His well trained and rich baritone voice was sought regularly for weddings though out the area.
He was a member of Clinton Lodge #140 F&AM, 32nd degree member of the Valley of Schenectady, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, a past Master of his lodge and a past District Deputy Grand Master of the Rensselaer- Schenectady District. A member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, the former Troy Club, the American Guild of Organists, Board of Directors of SMOB and President and Vice President of Peoples Avenue Enterprises. For over three decades, he was the ‘Persuader of Song’ for the Society of the Friends of St. Patrick also serving as a board member and Past President. During the 1940’s and 50’s, Deac was a leading figure in the legendary Troy Newswriters where his voice was much appreciated in this annual satire of Troy politics and politicians.
He is survived by a son, William Frederik Rossell and wife Anette Schroeder Rossell of London, UK; a daughter, Nicolle Rossell Landau and husband David of West Linn, OR and a granddaughter, Frederike Wilhelmina Schroeder-Rossell; one sister-in-law, Lilyan F. vanAlmelo and several nieces and nephews.
