Remembering Marguerite Rosenthal
Before her passing in the summer of 2016, Marguerite Rosenthal was a long time member of the Massachusetts Bail Fund Steering Committee whose contributions and commitment to the Bail Fund were profound. She was a professor at the Salem State University's School of Social Work where her major focus was social policy. Prior to her academic career, Marguerite worked as a lead investigator with the NJ Department of the Public Advocate, Office of the Public Defender, where she assisted in representation of psychiatric patients, juvenile defendants, parents in child abuse and neglect cases, and death penalty defense research. After her retired from SSU, she remained a member of the Mass. Chapter's National Assn. of Social Workers Criminal Justice Shared Interest Group and was the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare's co Book Review Editor.
Below are remembrances from the members of our Steering Committee about their work with Marguerite:
Below are remembrances from the members of our Steering Committee about their work with Marguerite:
From Jessica Thrall
The Bail Fund will feel the loss of Marguerite Rosenthal for years to come. She has been a dedicated, founding member who cared deeply for our clients.
I remember the first day I met Marguerite. She drove up to Lawrence to post bail for my client Michael. It was a long complicated day as she had to wait for the Court to process his bail and provide an ankle bracelet. She sat for hours on a bench, reading a newspaper. She was calm and steadfast. My client's family were from a rural part of Puerto Rico and spoke no English. My client had severe learning disabilities and no one really comprehended her role. She was unfazed. She just wanted to make sure that another person, who was presumed innocent, could be released with her help. Ultimately, a few months later, Michael's case was dismissed.
Marguerite approached the challenges of the Bail Fund with enthusiasm, determination and hope for change. She was proud of the work we do and we will miss her.
The Bail Fund will feel the loss of Marguerite Rosenthal for years to come. She has been a dedicated, founding member who cared deeply for our clients.
I remember the first day I met Marguerite. She drove up to Lawrence to post bail for my client Michael. It was a long complicated day as she had to wait for the Court to process his bail and provide an ankle bracelet. She sat for hours on a bench, reading a newspaper. She was calm and steadfast. My client's family were from a rural part of Puerto Rico and spoke no English. My client had severe learning disabilities and no one really comprehended her role. She was unfazed. She just wanted to make sure that another person, who was presumed innocent, could be released with her help. Ultimately, a few months later, Michael's case was dismissed.
Marguerite approached the challenges of the Bail Fund with enthusiasm, determination and hope for change. She was proud of the work we do and we will miss her.
From Atara Rich-Shea
In the year before she died, I was lucky enough to get to talk to Marguerite every week. In addition to her work as a member of the steering committee, she was also on the decision committee: a three-person panel that examined each client request and decided whether we could help or if we had to say no. She and I discussed each person in depth. Her questions and concerns always came from a place of caring, sympathy, realism, love, and often anger at a system we both knew to be unjust.
My favorite conversations were those in which she would at first hesitate with her approval. In the end, and with a righteous anger, Marguerite would say, "Post her bail, it's $200, nobody should be in jail for that little, shame on whoever put her there." And she was never wrong. She was always thoughtful - each client got her full attention, no matter how simple. She asked questions of me about the legal side of things, and I learned much from her about the social justice and social service side of things. She often knew off the top of her head that a specific address was a homeless shelter. She would tell me about the latest article in the local or international paper about drug addiction, a common issue for our clients.
I learned, over the course of the last year, what a life committed to social justice looks like. She never tired, and if she got discouraged, I couldn't tell. Last November the Bail Fund had our yearly fundraiser. Marguerite had broken her toe and was on crutches, but she hobbled into the event with soda and water in a rolling suitcase.
There are hundreds of men and women in Massachusetts whose lives were changed because Marguerite learned their stories. With humility and an understanding of the gravity of what incarceration does to a community, she voted to free them, and we did.
She was an inspiration to me and to everyone involved in the Bail Fund. Without her there is a hole in our organization not easily filled.
May her memory be a blessing.
In the year before she died, I was lucky enough to get to talk to Marguerite every week. In addition to her work as a member of the steering committee, she was also on the decision committee: a three-person panel that examined each client request and decided whether we could help or if we had to say no. She and I discussed each person in depth. Her questions and concerns always came from a place of caring, sympathy, realism, love, and often anger at a system we both knew to be unjust.
My favorite conversations were those in which she would at first hesitate with her approval. In the end, and with a righteous anger, Marguerite would say, "Post her bail, it's $200, nobody should be in jail for that little, shame on whoever put her there." And she was never wrong. She was always thoughtful - each client got her full attention, no matter how simple. She asked questions of me about the legal side of things, and I learned much from her about the social justice and social service side of things. She often knew off the top of her head that a specific address was a homeless shelter. She would tell me about the latest article in the local or international paper about drug addiction, a common issue for our clients.
I learned, over the course of the last year, what a life committed to social justice looks like. She never tired, and if she got discouraged, I couldn't tell. Last November the Bail Fund had our yearly fundraiser. Marguerite had broken her toe and was on crutches, but she hobbled into the event with soda and water in a rolling suitcase.
There are hundreds of men and women in Massachusetts whose lives were changed because Marguerite learned their stories. With humility and an understanding of the gravity of what incarceration does to a community, she voted to free them, and we did.
She was an inspiration to me and to everyone involved in the Bail Fund. Without her there is a hole in our organization not easily filled.
May her memory be a blessing.
The National Association of Social Workers published a story about Marguerite in their Focus Magazine. The text is reproduced below:
November 2016 FOCUS 5
In Memoriam:
Marguerite Rosenthal
Marguerite Rosenthal was born in the Bronx on July 20th, 1941, where she attended the Little Red School House, New York’s first progressive school. Her parents were social workers working for the Welfare Department.
Marguerite met her husband while they both worked in the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s—she was a VISTA volunteer working on voter education and children’s welfare. She worked for the Division of the Public Advocate, with social workers and lawyers who fought to improve the welfare and reduce the abuse of children under the state’s care—in institutions such as Juvenile Detention Centers and Foster Care facilities. Eventually she enrolled in a graduate program at Rutgers to study the history of Child Welfare in the U.S.
In 1986, Marguerite joined the faculty of Social Work at Salem State College (now University), where for two decades she was a professor and scholar of comparative social welfare policy and history, focusing particularly on how these systems affected the lives of single mothers and their children. In every class she taught, students were required to write a letter to the editor and send it in; and in retirement Marguerite continued her own practice of submitting regular letters. Salem State University has established the Marguerite Rosenthal Social Policy Award presented to an MSW student for the best history of social policy paper.
Life was no less full in retirement than it was during her employment. She volunteered for Si Kahn and Grassroots Leadership, researching and writing about privatization of prisons. She was a consistent believer in single-payer healthcare. She was active on the steering committee of the Massachusetts Bail Fund. She retained a position as a book review editor for a social work journal, reviewing material on deepening and broadening the social contract.
Marguerite was a longtime member of the National Association of Social Workers and its Criminal Justice Shared Interest Group, where she consistently pushed people to not only treat suffering but to address the big picture conditions that create suffering. She encouraged people to make it a habit to speak their minds. She inspired many with her example of articulating her beliefs and acting on her convictions. It is upon us to follow her example: live our convictions, speak our minds, love our family, love humanity, and work for justice.
A CELEBRATION of MARGUERITE’S LIFE!
SUNDAY DECEMBER 4th 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Workmen’s Circle, 1762 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02445
All are very welcome to share in an open circle ... we do ask everyone to keep to a couple of minutes, so that everyone may share! (If you are speaking on behalf of a group, please use your two minutes first for that, and then feel free to speak more personally later as we go round)
Poetry and songs are also welcome!
Bring a snack or drink to share, if you'd like to…
(We regret greatly that accessibility is limited, with a flight and a half of stairs)
November 2016 FOCUS 5
In Memoriam:
Marguerite Rosenthal
Marguerite Rosenthal was born in the Bronx on July 20th, 1941, where she attended the Little Red School House, New York’s first progressive school. Her parents were social workers working for the Welfare Department.
Marguerite met her husband while they both worked in the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s—she was a VISTA volunteer working on voter education and children’s welfare. She worked for the Division of the Public Advocate, with social workers and lawyers who fought to improve the welfare and reduce the abuse of children under the state’s care—in institutions such as Juvenile Detention Centers and Foster Care facilities. Eventually she enrolled in a graduate program at Rutgers to study the history of Child Welfare in the U.S.
In 1986, Marguerite joined the faculty of Social Work at Salem State College (now University), where for two decades she was a professor and scholar of comparative social welfare policy and history, focusing particularly on how these systems affected the lives of single mothers and their children. In every class she taught, students were required to write a letter to the editor and send it in; and in retirement Marguerite continued her own practice of submitting regular letters. Salem State University has established the Marguerite Rosenthal Social Policy Award presented to an MSW student for the best history of social policy paper.
Life was no less full in retirement than it was during her employment. She volunteered for Si Kahn and Grassroots Leadership, researching and writing about privatization of prisons. She was a consistent believer in single-payer healthcare. She was active on the steering committee of the Massachusetts Bail Fund. She retained a position as a book review editor for a social work journal, reviewing material on deepening and broadening the social contract.
Marguerite was a longtime member of the National Association of Social Workers and its Criminal Justice Shared Interest Group, where she consistently pushed people to not only treat suffering but to address the big picture conditions that create suffering. She encouraged people to make it a habit to speak their minds. She inspired many with her example of articulating her beliefs and acting on her convictions. It is upon us to follow her example: live our convictions, speak our minds, love our family, love humanity, and work for justice.
A CELEBRATION of MARGUERITE’S LIFE!
SUNDAY DECEMBER 4th 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Workmen’s Circle, 1762 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02445
All are very welcome to share in an open circle ... we do ask everyone to keep to a couple of minutes, so that everyone may share! (If you are speaking on behalf of a group, please use your two minutes first for that, and then feel free to speak more personally later as we go round)
Poetry and songs are also welcome!
Bring a snack or drink to share, if you'd like to…
(We regret greatly that accessibility is limited, with a flight and a half of stairs)