Judy (Ames) Rossow, 82 of Kenosha passed away March 20th at Hospice Alliance with her children by her side.
Judy was born June 16th, 1938, to Ward, a self-taught electrician and Virginia, a devoted homemaker. She was the first of four children. She was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where the Mississippi River begins on the west end of the Iron Range. For a time, they also lived in Kalispell, Montana near Flathead Lake where she liked to pick wild blueberries.
At 17, she moved to Minneapolis to pursue an accounting position at the University of Minnesota. It was in Minneapolis where one of her roommates introduced her to Gordon Rossow. The young couple hit it off and they married in 1961. In 1965 they moved to Racine, Wisconsin where they both worked at Case – Gordy in the engine testing center and Judy in purchasing.
After the birth of their son, Mitch, Judy started a home-based business. SOS – Secretarial & Office Services provided typing and accounting services for small businesses, dissertations for doctorate students at Carthage College, and assistance to the management at Western Publishing. She then started providing typing services for an innovative new start-up in town: a quick printer. This newest venture piqued Gordy’s interests. Together they saw a bright future in this new technology and Gordy apprenticed on the side with a quick printer in Racine, with the arrangement that they wouldn’t set up shop in the same town. This agreement led the family to their eventual “home town.” Kenosha’s downtown and lakefront quickly appealed to them, and visiting on a snowy day in February, they found an empty storefront with residential space upstairs in the Harborside neighborhood. They had found their home and business. On July 1st, 1973 they became the first quick print shop in Kenosha. Judy enjoyed the blend of family and work and six years later they brought their newborn daughter, Sharon, from the hospital directly to the Copy Center. Their hard work lives on in this cornerstone business of Downtown Kenosha as Sharon stepped in to run the shop after Gordy’s retirement in 2010.
With a family and family business firmly established, Judy set her sights on actively enriching her community. In 1986, Judy was named Lakeshore BID president and guided the adoption of the Rhode Opera House. She and BID manager Bob Irwin saved the beautiful, historic Rhode from demolition by working with the Rhode family and having BID take on the property until Lakeside Players were able to purchase the landmark in 1989. Judy fell in love with the old theater and was instrumental in its restoration. In 2000, she was integral in creating the fundraiser “Bowls and Books” – an annual competition for local restaurants to compete for best soup bragging rights and where authors met their fans and the Kenosha Community. The highly successful and popular event raised thousands each year to help with theater repairs and renovations. Her decades of dedication to the Rhode were memorialized in 2017 when the regal Rhode lobby was named the “Judy Rossow Grand Lobby” in her honor.
She was also a member of the Kenosha Rotary, where she met many incredible people who became her lifelong friends. In 1994 she became Club President, only the second woman to hold the position, after insisting that Donna Steigerwaldt of Jockey go first.
In 1990, Judy started working at Meals on Wheels. When she was young, her ambition to help and care for others had her considering a nursing career. Meals on Wheels gave her the opportunity to fulfill that drive and she found it incredibly rewarding. Her dedication and proficiency there were so appreciated that in 2013, she was inducted into the Meals on Wheels Hall of Fame.
When Judy left Meals on Wheels in 2004, her sense of community beckoned. She wanted to be involved with the people and community that she had come to love so much. So she entered public service, running for the Kenosha County Board, where she served for four years.
Judy’s life was celebrated daily by her family and her many friends, but her community celebrated her as well. In 2010, she received the Anderson Arts Center’s “Lifetime Achievement Award”, given for her dedication to Kenosha’s wonderful arts community and her role in creating the Pollard Gallery. Kenosha News honored her with their 2015 “Person of the Year” award, citing her sense of community and civic awareness. And then, in 2018, she received the inaugural “Person of Influence” award given by Downtown Kenosha, Inc. These are a few of the many notable awards and commendations that Judy justly (and humbly) received over the years. She did not seek them, she merely meant to do the best she could in her own small way.
Her strong sense of community and many, many friendships are testament to the deep-seated roots she firmly put down in her adopted hometown of Kenosha. Having grown up on and lived nearby the waterfront for much of her life, Judy said the lakefront had brought them to Kenosha, but the people were what made them want to stay. Simply put, she loved this city and its people – and her desire to give back to this city was a product of that love.
Any omission of committees, memberships and awards are solely the fault of her children. The importance and momentousness of those honors, duties and mentions are not negated in any way. There are just far too many of them to mention (or for her children to remember).
Judy’s life was filled with dedication and service to her family and community – and love for those very same things. She will be missed, but her spirit will live on. Through the institutions and fundraisers that she established; the many good works and deeds that she endeavored to create; the gentle kindness that she shared liberally with friends and acquaintances; and most especially through the warmth of her ever present love that will comfort her children and family while they deal with her passing.
Judith Rossow was preceded in death by her parents, and her husband, Gordon “Gordy” Rossow. She is survived by her children Mitchell Rossow of Minneapolis, MN and Sharon Rossow of Kenosha, WI; her siblings, Ed (Barb) Ames of Grand Rapids MN, Jane (the late David) Hide of Glasgow, MT and Margaret (Jim) May of Minnetonka, MN; brother-in-law Dennis (the late Donna) Rossow of Stratford, SD and sister-in-law Margaret (the late Ed) Marten of Roseville, MN; as well as her Uncle Frank (the late Betty) Passard of Brookfield, CO and her many nieces, nephews and cousins.
A celebration of Judy’s life will be planned when her children feel it is safe for her family and many friends to come together. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her honor to Hospice Alliance, Kenosha Rotary and her beloved Rhode Center for the Arts.
