Rolfe Sanberg, 77, of Oak Park, died April 5, 2005 from complications related to cancer at Hines V.A. Hospital. Services pending at the Third Unitarian Church of Chicago. He is survived by his companion, Mary Hunter; his brother Lance; his former wife, Josephine; his children, Edith, Eric, Claudia, Jamie and Rolfe Jr.; grandchildren, Morgan, Vanessa, Jason, Eliza, Collin, Jamie-Michael, Alexander and Nigel; and great-grandchild Hanna. He was born and raised in Chicago and later resided in Oak Park. He was a graduate of Lane Tech High School. He was a painter who studied art at the Chicago Art Institute. He studied and sang opera for a small opera company in Chicago. As a young man he was a life guard for the Chicago Beaches. He served as a medic in the U.S. Army occupying Germany post World War II. Later in life he was a civil rights activist who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also was an influential anti-war activist in the 1960's and participated in the historic demonstration at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention. He was a self educated true intellect. Throughout his lifetime most of his hours were spent in the unceasing passionate pursuit of knowledge, music, and the arts. He was active in influencing. Even in his last days he was still writing and sending letters accompanied with news articles to friends and family, as well as politicians and reporters. His career as a salesman often varied, however it was his vast intelligence regarding wine that earned him a fulfilling position as a wine expert and salesman. His keen analysis of the stock market provided him with a living as time went on. He was an avid gardener and bird watcher. He loved children and animals. He helped shape young minds teaching at the Third Unitarian Church of Chicago. He shared the things that were most important to him, curiosity of knowledge, music, and the arts. He was careful never to discourage children from their intellectual curiosities or passions. As a father he loved bringing his children to all the museums, beaches, amusement parks, and cultural events the city had to offer. At the evening dinner table he encouraged all his children to talk abour their day's activities which cultivated a vast array of eclectic topics. He was continually giving and lending family and friends books, films, and music, opening their minds to so many diverse subjects. There never was a limit to the layers, depths, and horizons in the journey of knowledge that he took people on. He died with all his family at his hospital bedside while listening to opera, classical, and jazz music. He asked that his body be donated to science and then cremated with his ashes spread in the compost heap for his garden. Rolfe Sanberg the man, the father, the intellect, the man of arts will be missed

Printed in the Chicago Tribune, 2005