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=> Obituary: Rose Bouziane Nader

Obituary: Rose Bouziane Nader
Posted by Qasrani (Guest) - Wednesday, January 25 2006, 17:23:34 (CET)
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Press Release from the Nader Family:
Rose Bouziane Nader - Teacher, homemaker, civic advocate and author.

Contact: 860-738-1262

Washington, DC, January 23, 2006--Rose Bouziane
Nader, who raised a family of civic activists by
her teaching, writings and personal example, died
on January 20 in her 100th year at her home in
Winsted, Connecticut. The cause was congestive
heart failure, according to her daughter, Claire
Nader.

Born in Zahle, Lebanon on February 7, 1906, Rose
Nader became a high school teacher of French and
Arabic. She married Nathra Nader in 1925, and
emigrated to the United States shortly
thereafter, settling with her husband, a
businessman, in Danbury and then in Winsted,
Connecticut where they raised four children.

She is survived by a sister, Angele Bouziane
Mokhiber, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two
daughters, Dr. Claire Nader of Washington D.C.
and Winsted, Connecticut, and Anthropology
Professor Laura Nader of Berkeley, California, a
son, Ralph Nader of Washington, D.C.; three
grandchildren and three great-grand children. She
was predeceased by her first son, Shafeek Nader,
the principal founder of the Northwestern
Connecticut Community College, in 1986 and by her
husband in 1991.

In the nineteen fifties, after the destructive
hurricane and flood of Winsted in 1955 - the
third disastrous flood there in thirty years- she
famously pressed then Senator Prescott Bush in a
public gathering to pledge to push for a dry dam
by not letting go of his handshake until he had
promised to do so. And it was built. No more
floods since. After the flood damaged the local
movie theater she also arranged for a community
room at the local YMCA to be devoted to the
recreational needs of local youngsters who
otherwise might be loitering on the streets. She
also initiated and led the Women's Club
International Relations Committee, bringing
distinguished speakers to the Town to inform the
citizenry about world affairs.

Mrs. Nader was active in adult education in
Connecticut, where she and her students were
featured on a statewide television show in the
nineteen fifties. Her public interests ranged
from the local to the state to the global level,
as a member of Peace Action, Co-op America, and
as President of The Shafeek Nader Trust for the
Community Interest. She fought for the expansion
and later the preservation of the Winsted
Memorial Hospital.

During the seventies, Mrs. Nader was criticized
in an editorial by the Wall Street Journal for
having insisted that her children munch chick
peas on their walk to school instead of
presumably something sweeter. They charged that
she was puritanical. This so amused her. Later,
when hummus became a popular dish, she remarked,
"I suppose I was a little ahead of the times for
the Wall Street Journal,"

In 1991, after years of orally responding to
questions from people curious about what formula
she used to raise her children, she authored the
book It Happened in the Kitchen, which contained
her philosophy of child-rearing, the intimate
connection between good food and diverse kitchen
table/family conversations and some 100 recipes
to nourish this food and thought combination. The
last segment includes many perceptive
observations by her husband, Mr. Nader, during
discussions with their children. She was featured
that year on the Phil Donahue Show with her book,
which received wide circulation. One of the
recipes presented on the show was hummus!

Dr. Donna Andrea Rosenberg, a specialist in child
rearing, wrote that the first section of the book
"is the best I have ever read on child
development. It is a masterpiece of utility and
brevity. I constantly recommend it."

Mrs. Nader was a contributor of articles to
several publications, including one in the New
York Times on the irony of those common
assurances of credibility ("in all honesty," "to
be perfectly frank,"), which have the unintended
effect of undermining the speaker's previous
statements. In the U.S. Postal Service's magazine
she wrote praising so-called "junk mail" from
citizen organizations that do inform you about
what is going on in their world and give you a
choice to help expand their efforts.

Rose Nader was a joyous person with an engaging
vibrant manner, a love of singing songs and
spreading proverbs and an irreverent sense of
humor. "She was not a person of many words," said
her daughter Claire, who is active with many
citizen groups, "but her content contained much
memorable wisdom." For example, her daughter
Laura noted, "on child-rearing formulas, Mom
observed that, 'there is no recipe.' On
supporting each other, it was 'operation
cooperation.'"

To her young children, Rose Nader would explain
health care just when they were most
receptive--lying in bed with childhood ailments.
To her growing children, she would teach about
priceless things by asking them the price of
sunshine, or songbirds or cool breezes. She
declined to read to her little ones, preferring
to draw on her wide historical and literary
memory and speak directly to their eyes so as to
discern their reactions and expressions.

Rose Nader consistently conveyed to her children
their duty to improve the country to which she
had emigrated. "One day, when I was about nine
years old," recalled her son Ralph, "she asked me
if I loved my country," I replied that I did,
whereupon she said "Well I hope when you grow up,
you'll work hard to make your country more
lovable."

When her children came home from school for
lunch, she would relate installments of an
historical saga. While at the evening meal, she
listened to the children talk about what the
school day was like.

A practicing advocate of the uses of proverbs to
raise children and enrich adult conversations as
well, she was collecting Arabic proverbs used
liberally in her own family upbringing and
community in Lebanon with a view of compiling
them in a book.

A memorial service will be held at a date to be determined.

Memorial contributions may be made to The Shafeek
Nader Trust for the Community Interest, an
educational foundation, PO Box 500, Winsted, CT 06098.

For further comments about the life of Rose
Nader, you may wish to contact Phil Donahue at
212-564-3234, David Halberstam at 212-580-4835,
and Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public
Citizen's Health Research Group, at 202-588-7735,
and publisher-author Richard Grossman at
860-824-0367.

Contact telephone number is: 860-738-1262.

The above was written by the Nader family on January 23, 2006.

Thank you for your interest.



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