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Community Corner

Clare Rose Remembered By Community

Beverage company founder was known locally as the hardest working man in, and for, Patchogue.

Clare Rose was a true community man.

Not only was the local native born in the Village of Patchogue, but he spent his life weaving his 74-year-old business into the fabric of the town.

"He's a part of who we are as a community," said Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri. "He lived his life with his business in Patchogue and he and his family were always part of Patchogue."

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Rose, famous for founding the local beverage distributor that bears his name, died Saturday in his home at age 98.

"He was an icon that built his business with soda pop," said Lari Fiala, President of the Patchogue Chamber of Commerce.

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He built Clare Rose Inc. from a single-truck operation in the 1930s to a company that today is one of the largest beer distributors in the country.

"Clare Rose taught generations of kids how to work and what it meant to earn a dollar the right way," said Pontieri, who spent 25 years employed by Rose's firm.

"He was the hardest working man ever, and believed that work would set you free," said son Mark Rose.

The business, which Rose passed to sons Mark and Fredric in the 1960s, is now run by a third generation of the Rose family. Current CEO and grandson Sean Rose said that the business now has around 5,000 customers

And while Clare Rose Inc. called Patchogue home for Rose's entire life, the company is planning a move to Yaphank in the fall. Sean Rose said that work is being done in cooperation with the Village to convert the Patchogue facility into a community location.

"It's symbolic that his loss and the loss of his company are happening at the same time," Pontieri said. "There's a lot of history there."

But though Rose is most widely known as the patriarch of Clare Rose Inc, one of the largest privately-owned firms on Long Island, he was also a major benefactor to the Village of Patchogue, contributing to various projects in the community.

"People look at the beer business as who he was, but he was a philanthropist from the beginning," Pontieri said. "He's given money to the hospital, the college and just to guys like me."

Rose financially backed St. Joseph's College's creation of The Clare Rose Theater, which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary, and made donations to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital and the soon-to-be-opened Patchogue YMCA.

Elaine Borowski of the Patchogue Chamber of Commerce said that he was instrumental in donating to the emergency room to the Brookhaven Memorial Hospital.

He was also president of the community-building volunteer organization the Patchogue Lions Club from 1950 to 1951.

But Pontieri said Rose's enthusiasm for life, work and the Patchogue community was most clearly illustrated on the job.

"You really had to work for the man to understand his passion," he said.

The Clare Rose Playhouse will be holding a memorial and celebration of the 25th anniversary season of the theatre on Sept. 12.

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