UFT Admin
- Retired School Secretary
Rose Schwally was a dedicated and caring school secretary who spent 23 of her 24-year school secretarial career at Brooklyn’s City-As-School, where she got along well with colleagues and students alike. Rose, who retired in 2006, died of natural causes due to Alzheimer’s disease on March 13, 2025, at the age of 85.
Rose enjoyed the students at City-As-School, whom she found to be “bright and interesting” as people who chose an alternative education over traditional schooling, Rose’s daughter Laura Schwally said. City-As-School, founded in Manhattan in 1972, is one of the oldest alternative high schools in the country. Junior and senior students continue their education with real-world internships at businesses, nonprofits and cultural organizations throughout the city.
When City-As-School decided to operate its first satellite site in Brooklyn, Rose was there to help open it in 1983. “She stayed with the school when it moved to three different sites within Brooklyn,” Mike Salvatore said. He was the teacher in charge at the school, responsible for administrative and supervisory duties. “I worked with her every day. She had a good sense of humor and a great laugh. She was a great asset to the school,” he said.
When Harold Serper joined the staff as teacher in charge in 1985, he relied on Rose completely. “She was my right-hand person! She was bright and would speak her mind. She always had in mind what was best for our students in all her thoughts and actions,” Serper said.
Rose’s first secretarial job was at the Irish Arts Center, located in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, before she got her first school secretary job at Manhattan’s Martin Luther King Jr. HS. She spent one year there before moving on to City-As-School.
A teacher friend had suggested that she become a school secretary, Schwally said. Rose took courses at Brooklyn Community College, passed the exam and found her footing quickly.
Born in the South Bronx, Rose was “incurably proud of being Irish and volunteered for decades at the Irish Repertory Theatre, where she was an integral part of the company. It’s still going strong on West 22nd Street,” Salvatore said. She even typed the script for the Academy Award-winning movie “My Left Foot,” which was directed by Jim Sheridan, whom she met at the theater, Salvatore recalled.
She remained a supporter of the theater even after her retirement, traveling to the city from her home with her daughter in upstate New York to volunteer there, Salvatore said.
In addition to her love of Irish culture and theater, Rose loved taking her family on camping trips to New England in the summers. “We would visit historical sites. She was always determined that we learn,” Schwally said.
In addition to Schwally, Rose raised two other children in the Rockaways, where they all loved being near the ocean. “She said I was born with gills,” Schwally said. “We lived only two blocks away from the beach and would leave our towels and blankets there when we came home for lunch.”
Rose is survived by her children, Rosemary, Laura and Michael; daughter-in-law, Janet; granddaughter, Alyssa; brother, Michael McDonald; and sisters Margaret Ann Shevlin, Kathleen McMullan and Sheila Olivera.
Condolences can be sent to:
Laura Schwally
P.O. Box 265
Milford, NY 13807
