Tom Rosenberg

By Stephen Magagnini, Sacramento Bee

Tom Rosenberg, whose parents fled Nazi Germany with him in 1938 to America where he helped preserve the American River Parkway and Lake Tahoe, died on Valentine’s Day in Sacramento at age 85.

Rosenberg, who had Alzheimer’s disease, was in hospice care, said Hilary Abramson, his wife of 32 years and a former Bee reporter.

“Everyone who knew him knew his mantra: ‘You need one of three ingredients to be happy: hope, a sense of accomplishment and love,’ ” Abramson said. “He was known as ‘Father of the American River Parkway’ for helping run a bond issue for it and ‘Bingo King’ for the nonprofit bingo games he ran in Sacramento for Capital Public Radio, the Developmental Disabilities Service Organization, the Sacramento Asian Community Center, The Sacramento Children’s Home and others.”

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