Dr. Harold Rosenbaum, a 50-year resident of Lexington and Chilmark, Massachusetts, died peacefully on Aug. 12, with his wife of 63 years, Barbara Rosenbaum, at his side. He was 85 years old. Harold was a loving husband, father, grandfather, uncle, brother and son. Throughout his life, Harold found a deep sense of purpose through his family, his work and the people he worked with. Harold was president and CEO of Burlington, Massachusetts-based CENTRA Technology, which he founded in 1997. CENTRA provided critical defense, intelligence and security consulting to government agencies. At the time of his retirement, CENTRA employed 600 people.
Harold was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 23, 1939, to Martha and Abraham Rosenbaum. He was the youngest of two children and had a very close relationship with his parents and his sister, Sheila. Known as “Red” by his friends – for his bright, red hair – Harold excelled at math from an early age and attended Brooklyn Technical High School, where he studied aeronautical engineering.
After high school, Harold earned a Tau Beta Pi scholarship to attend the Polytechnical Institute of Brooklyn. There, he was honored by Sigma Gamma Tau for his academic achievements in his first two years and was a proud member of the Beta Pi Chapter of the Alpha Epsilon fraternity. In May 1960 – while still in college – Harold met 19-year-old Barbara Beregowitz through a mutual friend.
The young couple were married early the following year and then drove to California that spring so Harold could begin a doctoral program at Stanford for astronautical engineering. One year into the program, however, Harold’s father suffered a stroke. Harold sold the couple’s car to buy plane tickets home, resumed his studies closer to his father and then graduated with honors from the Brooklyn Polytechnical graduate program with a PhD in engineering.
The couple settled in New Jersey to start a family. Linda was born in 1965 followed by Sharon three years later. In 1969, a new job at AVCO – later Textron – brought the family to Lexington, Massachusetts, where Amy was born several years later. Harold quickly fell in love with Lexington, swearing he would never leave because it was the most beautiful place to live. He loved the fall colors, and even the snow. He could often be seen taking his daily, early morning run around the neighborhoods. Harold even adopted the sports teams, cheering on the Red Sox through the dark days of the Bambino’s curse and celebrating Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and the rest of the Celtics during their heyday in the 1980s.
While working at AVCO in Wilmington, Massachusetts, Harold began advising then-Rep. Paul Tsongas (D-MA), providing technical expertise on the newly-formed Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), a federal agency focused on research and development of nuclear weapons and naval reactors. In 1976, Harold was awarded a Congressional fellowship by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and he moved the family to Washington, D.C., where he worked on the House Armed Services Committee.
The family returned to Lexington in 1977, and Harold started his first business venture (Harold Rosenbaum Associations, HRA) from the basement of the family home. A little more than 10 years later, Harold founded his last – and most successful – venture, CENTRA Technology. His work was his passion, and his employees were his extended family. Harold was honored for his work many times throughout his career, including serving as the Chair of the Defense Science Board and as an advisor to the Central Intelligence Agency Technology and Advisory Panel.
Family came first for Harold. He gave up a scholarship at Stanford to help care for his father, and later helped his sister through a terminal illness and called his brother-in-law every day after his sister’s death until both became too ill. Harold was immensely proud of his three daughters and loved each and every one of his nine grandchildren, delighting in being surrounded by babies and watching them grow. Once his girls left for college, Harold would schedule family reunions on Memorial Day every year to celebrate Barbara’s birthday. He’d start planning in December, negotiating dates and locations and arranging travel.
Harold also loved being active. As a child, he played stickball and basketball, picked up running later in life and played weekly tennis with a core group of friends. For years, he dreamed of running a marathon, finally completing his first of three when he was 60 in celebration of the 100th running of the Boston Marathon. Even his favorite vacations were active – he loved the bike trips he took across Europe with Barbara and his close group of friends – always bringing up the rear so he could make sure that no one fell behind.
Harold loved living in Lexington, marveling in the colors every fall, but Martha’s Vineyard was Harold’s favorite place to be. He and Barbara bought a house in Chilmark in 1988. Whenever he could, Harold would be there on the weekends in the warm weather, watching the sun set from the back porch.
Harold is survived by his wife of 63 years, Barbara, and his three daughters and sons-in-law: Linda and Chris Duska, Sharon and Ron Harris and Amy Rosenbaum and Josh Lahey. He also leaves behind nine grandchildren: Sarah, Jessica, Jacob and Samuel Duska; Rachel and Rebecca Harris; and Hannah, Lewis and Alice Lahey. He is also survived by his niece, Robin Mandel, and was predeceased by his sister Sheila, his brother-in-law Melvin and his nephew Jeffrey. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Rosenbaum Family Foundation, a 501c(3) organization created from the proceeds of selling Harold’s much-loved business, CENTRA. The Foundation provides yearly donations to worthy causes in Harold’s name.
