Ira Rosenberg was born February 9, 1945.  He grew up in South Gate, attending Victoria Avenue Elementary School, Junior High, and High School.  I first met him on the way to school in the early days of the 7th grade.  We became pals and developed a friendship that would last a lifetime.

In high school, Ira was in the Medallions, serving as an usher at school functions and was a manager for our "mighty, hard to beat," senior football team, keeping statistics and things in order.  After graduation, he worked several part time jobs involving computers and discovered that was what he wanted to do.

In 1965 Ira enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed in Great Falls Montana where he met the woman who would become his wife, Marion.  They were married on September 2, 1966.  When his enlistment was up in 1969, he left the service to pursue his original career choice of data processing.

While Ira didn't have any real work experience in his choice of occupations, what he did have was a goal.  He advanced on that in the old-fashioned way, he worked his way up.  He started at the bottom as a computer operator trainee and built on that.  Over the next several years Ira worked for a succession of companies with increasing duties and responsibilities.  At the same time, he went to night school obtaining his degree from CSUF in Quantitative Methods.  This was not a fast-track to success.  It took several years, patience, and dedication.  In the end he had a working knowledge of almost all areas of data processing and a degree to go with it.  He had met his goal and had the career he wanted, a home in La Mirada, two sons (Dana and John) and an opportunity to go to work for Hughes in the IT Department.  He would work there until he retired.

After retirement, he and Marion moved to the Portland Oregon area, choosing to live in Gresham.  Ira quickly became bored with retirement and started dabbling in income tax as something to do.  As time went on, the tax business became a bigger part of his life.  In addition, he was active in his synagogue as well as several other organizations.  This included serving 25 years as the Financial Officer of the Civil Air Patrol.  Ira and Marion have been blessed to have all their family there in Oregon!  They attended several of our class reunions, the last being the 55th.

In his later years Ira was beset with a variety of health problems.  He passed away, at home, on June 12, 2023, just a few months after his 78th birthday.  He was preceded in death by his mother, father, and sister.  He is survived by his loving wife, Marion, sons Dana and John, John's wife Amy, and grandchildren Philip, Tatum, and Ben, not to mention a multitude of friends and acquaintances.

I have only good things to say about Ira.  He was truthful and a man of his word.  He was honest and the definition of what a friend should be.  There are some people who are good at one thing or another.  Ira strove to be good at everything.  He was friendly and many people will miss him.  His eyes would sparkle when he laughed.  He was intelligent and hard-working.  What was ira?  "Good" in all senses of the word, "man" in all senses of that word.  So, when I say, "He was a Good Man," I have no higher praise.  Rest in peace dear classmate!