Who

The scion of a New York real estate dynasty, Daniel Rose is the chairman of Rose Associates and a prodigious philanthropist.

Backstory

The Rose family real estate dynasty took shape in the '20s, when Dan's father and uncle, Samuel and David Rose, founded Rose Associates. After graduating from Yale—the alma mater of nearly all the Roses—and serving in the Air Force during the Korean War, Dan joined his brothers Frederick and Elihu at Rose Associates, where they became the second generation of Rose family real estate barons. The brothers focused on developing, managing, and owning mid-range residential buildings in Manhattan, but took on some commercial projects and non-New York projects as well; some of their more notable developments included 280 Park Avenue, the Pentagon City complex in northern Virginia during the early '80s, and One Financial Center in Boston. As the Roses' real estate assets ballooned, they turned their money into cultural capital—Daniel soon established himself as a major philanthropist and the "house intellectual" of the real estate world. After serving as Rose Associates' president for years, Dan became chairman in 1999 following the death of his brother Frederick P. Rose.

Of note

Rose Associates manages over 31,000 apartments in New York City, including those in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, part of a deal with the complex's owner, Jerry Speyer's Tishman Speyer. Other residential properties the company owns and/or manages include London Terrace on West 23rd Street, and upper-end rental buildings such as the Madison Belvedere on West 29th Street, the Chelsea Landmark, the Montrose, the Metropolis on East 44th Street, and Le Rivage on West Street. These days Dan, who is nearing 80, serves as the company's figurehead. His nephew, Adam R. Rose (Frederick's son), serves as president and runs its day-to-day affairs.

Pet cause

The Rose family has been exceedingly generous with New York cultural institutions, which is reflected in the numerous wings, annexes, and entire buildings named in their honor—the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the Natural History Museum, the Rose Main Reading Room at the New York Public Library, and the Rose Hall, Rose Building and Rose Rehearsal Studio, all at Lincoln Center. The Roses have also lavished their wealth on their alma mater, Yale, where you can find Rose Walk and the Rose Alumni House. For his part, Dan's particular passion has been the Harlem Educational Activities Fund, a nonprofit that he founded in 1991 to help students from Harlem and Washington Heights get into top-notch high schools and colleges.

In person

The Rose clan tends to be fairly press-shy—Dan has long preferred to keep a low profile and focus on his cultural pursuits. The Times once remarked that he's "more likely to be found at a reading on the Upper West Side" than at a real estate industry event.

Personal

Dan's wife, Joanna Rose, is active in philanthropy and the former chair of the now-defunct lit mag Partisan Review. The couple lives at 895 Park and has a summer house in East Hampton. They have four grown kids: Gideon, the managing editor of Foreign Affairs; David, who runs an investment company of his own, Rose Tech Ventures; Emily; and Joseph, who was the head of the City Planning Commission under Rudy Giuliani and currently works for the real estate developer Marshall Rose. While Marshall isn't related to the other Roses by blood, Joseph married Marshall Rose's daughter, Wendi, so the two Rose families are now connected by marriage.