Teacher, voracious reader, was 101

Virginia Rose Delman died peacefully on Wednesday, October 23 at her home in Claremont at the age of 101.

Virginia was born in Chicago to Ralph and Celia Rose on February 21, 1918. The family included siblings William (Bill) Rose and Leonore Rubey, and numerous nieces and nephews

After receiving her master’s degree in speech therapy from Northwestern University in 1939, she joined the Red Cross and traveled through Australia and New Guinea, where she met her future husband, Sherman.

In 1946, the couple was married in Los Angeles, where she began her professional career as the first speech therapist at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. 

The Delmans moved to Pomona in 1956, where they raised four sons, Jim, Marc, Kirk and Craig. Serving the community became an important part of Ms. Delman’s life in Pomona. She volunteered for numerous civic and community organizations, including serving as sisterhood president at Temple Beth Israel, president of the Pomona Valley Community Hospital Auxiliary, president of the Pomona Unified School District’s PTA, delivering Meals on Wheels, and narrating books for Reading for the Blind.

In the early 1960s Ms. Delman began working as a special education teacher for the hard of hearing program with the Pomona Unified School District, and ultimately served as a resource coordinator for its special education department. After 20 rewarding years of teaching she retired in 1983.

In 1965 she and her family became a part of the American Field Service by hosting Harry Flam from Uppsala, Sweden, while her son Jim traveled to Sulz Rickenbach, Switzerland. In 1971, Peggy Moses, from Billings, Montana, and her son Craig traded homes through a domestic program of the AFS. Both Harry and Peggy became a significant parts of her extended family.  

She was an avid reader who was always looking for and sharing a great book. “Ginny,” as her friends called her, was also a member of the “Miss Deals,” a small group of women who loved to get together to talk and play bridge.

Ms. Delman was preceded in death by her husband, Sherman, in 1973; and her son, Marc, in 2008.

She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Jim (Laura Allen) of Denver; Kirk (Dana) of Claremont and Craig (Judy) of Upland; grandchildren Sara (Jen Biesty) and Aaron of Oakland, California; Andrew (Lee Newton)  of Los Angeles; Rachel of Chicago; Anna of Los Angeles; and Micah of Laramie, Wyoming; and great-granddaughter, Celia Rose.