Funeral Details

Jonathan Lincoln Rosner

July 23, 1941 - May 24, 2025

SERVICE INFORMATION

Date and Time

Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 11:00 AM

Service

KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation
1100 East Hyde Park Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60615
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Clergy

Rabbi Daniel Kirzane
Cantor David Berger
KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation

Interment

Oak Woods Cemetery
1035 East 67th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637
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Shiva

Rosner Residence
5337 South University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60615
773.469.1892
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Wednesday and Thursday
4-8PM
Minyan at 7PM

The service will be live streamed on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 11AM Central Time.
LIVESTREAM

Memorial Contributions

KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation
1100 East Hyde Park Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60615
www.kamii.org

Doctors Without Borders
40 Rector Street, 16th Floor
New York, New York 10006
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

WFMT
5400 North St. Louis Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60625
www.wfmt.org

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
PO Box 97077
Washington, DC 20090
www.jcfs.org/hias




OBITUARY

Jonathan Rosner attended Swarthmore College and earned a PhD in Physics from Princeton University. He was a post-doc at the University of Washington, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, and a professor at the University of Minnesota before serving as a professor at the University of Chicago, where he researched and taught for 43 years. Jon was a renowned expert in Standard Model and Flavor Physics and made many fundamental contributions to the field of high energy particle physics in his long and illustrious career.

His congregation, KAM Isaiah Israel, was deeply important to him, almost a second home. Jon loved the joyousness of studying Talmud and Torah, and he loved services filled with kavanah and song.

Jon loved hiking in the mountains, fishing, and traveling throughout the world. His HAM radio exploits began at a young age and continued throughout his life.

Jonathan is survived by his wife of 60 years, Joy Rosner, their children, Hannah Rosner and Ben Rosner, and their granddaughter Sadie Rosner.

He was a kind, gentle, humble and brilliant soul. A loving husband, father, colleague, and friend, Jon will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

Services Wednesday, 11AM at KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 1100 East Hyde Park Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60615. Interment Oak Woods Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, www.kamii.org, Doctors Without Borders, www.doctorswithoutborders.org, or WFMT, www.wfmt.org.

To attend the funeral livestream, please visit our website. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Buffalo Grove Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com


GUEST BOOK

We encourage you to share your personal condolences and stories of Jonathan Lincoln Rosner below and we will share them with the family.
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I first knew Jon when we were teens. Our fathers shared office space in New York and the families were close friends. We lost touch in college and reconnected when he found me on Facebook, now both in Chicago. It was a treat to reminisce and to get to know Joy. He was a lovely man who will be much missed.

Jane Goodman
May 25, 2025
I knew Jon in the 2000s when we both worked on the CLEO experiment in Ithaca, NY. He was one of the smartest and kindest people I have ever known.

Peter Zweber
May 25, 2025
Heartfelt condolences to Joy & all the family. May Jon's memory be for a blessing always.

Dorothy B Mayer
May 26, 2025
Jon was an avid amateur radio operator for 72 years. He was a member of the Northern Illinois DX Association and the Society of Midwest Contesters. Jon had achieved #1 DXCC Honor Roll, meaning he had made contact with amateurs in 340 countries. This accomplishment made him a member of a very exclusive group of amateur radio operators.

73 Jon, you will be missed

Ed Picha
May 26, 2025
I am so sorry to hear of Jon's passing. Barbara and I send our deepest sympathies to Joy and his children.
I met Jon during his recruitment to UChicago, way back in 1983. He was a valued colleague and friend for 40+ years. Jon was supportive of all his colleagues and was a big booster of particle cosmology and my institute, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. Jon loved physics -- all physics! If there was a seminar or colloquium Jon would be there. There wasn't a more positive and nice person than Jon Rosner. We will all miss him. PS. I got my start in science via ham radio in the 1960s but let go of it when I was an undergrad at Caltech in 1972. Jon and I talked ham radio and DX stories, but I didn't know he had 340 countries -- wow -- my count stopped at 253.

Michael Turner
May 26, 2025
I met John when I began my first postdoc at the University of Chicago 13 years ago. He had just become emeritus, but you wouldn’t have known it. Every time I was at the University, he was there. Incredibly knowledgeable, kind, and generous with his time, John remained deeply engaged with the physics of the moment. He took a genuine interest in the questions that drove us, and his insight and encouragement meant a great deal to many of us. He also played a crucial role in shaping the Snowmass process in 2013. John’s presence was steady, thoughtful, and quietly impactful. He will be deeply missed.

Martin Bauer
May 27, 2025
I was very saddened to hear the news. Jon will be deeply missed. More than just a kind and encouraging advisor, he is among the best human beings I have had the privilege to have met.

Arun Thalapillil
May 28, 2025
Jon was a very kind person and an excellent mentor -- it was an honor to have had the opportunity to work with him as a PhD student. But even after my PhD, I have had the privilege of collaborating with Jon. For me he was the person to go to with research questions, especially if I was stuck. I have often asked the question "What would Jon Rosner sat?" when I arrived at a subtle research question and I noticed that an answer to that often led me in the correct path. I am deeply indebted to him in my academic career.

My partner and I also remember Jon through our several family dinners -- we used to do that whenever we could make it back to Chicago after we left. We will deeply miss Jon.

Bhujyo Bhattacharya
May 28, 2025
Thank you for sharing Jon with so many of us. He was, simply, the very best of the very best.

Cassandra Heinz
May 28, 2025
Jon was a wonderful friend and colleague. He will be remembered for his many deep insights and the development of our present understanding of science.

Bill and Marge Bardeen
May 28, 2025
While Uncle Jon will be remembered by so many people for his having travelled the world researching and teaching, he and Joy always also set aside the time to travel across the country to be present for all of the important events in my life and for those of my children. I’ll always remember not only his kindness and empathy, but also the chess games, the meals, and of course the folk music when visiting the family in Chicago. He also was an important role model for me, influencing my own decision to enter academia. I’m so very grateful to have had him as a member of the family.

Bruce Cohen
May 28, 2025
A great loss, but also so many great memories. I met him in graduate school at UC in the 1980s and got to know him more and more over the years, especially via CLEO. He was a beautiful man, multi-faceted and with a quiet intensity and depth in everything he did.

Roy Briere
June 1, 2025
I will never forget Jon's warmth, humility, and deep intelligence. These qualities made him remarkably approachable to me when I was a young undergraduate at the University of Chicago, and are evident in the numerous other students Jon mentored over his long career in science. Jon's example as a role model has been an inspiration to me ever since, and our physics community and world are now diminished in his absence. My deepest condolences to Jon's family.

Timothy Hobbs
June 1, 2025