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If you’ve heard the name Larry Rosensweig, it’s probably because of his longtime association with the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. He was, after all, the founding director of the museum and remained at the helm for 28 years. He has traveled to Japan many times, speaks Japanese fluently, and was decorated with the “Order of the Rising Sun” by the emperor of Japan.
    But it makes you wonder: how did a Jewish guy from rural Pennsylvania become interested in Japanese culture in the first place?
    “When I was in eighth grade, we had a Japanese exchange student at my school,” Rosensweig says. “That was unusual in my town in the early 1960s. I became curious about Japan and decided I wanted to be an exchange student, too.”
    He got his wish at age 18 after graduating from high school. He spent one year living in Sendai, Japan, with three different families as part of Rotary International’s Youth Exchange program. That experience inspired him, upon returning to the U.S., to pursue a college degree in East Asian languages and civilizations.
    After college, Rosensweig went back to Japan for more cultural immersion, this time living with a family in Hiroshima and working for a company that transported Mazda automobiles. He grew to love Japanese home cooking, especially the dishes prepared by his host mother, Mrs. Toda: vegetables with bits of fish, lotus root tempura and a savory custard-like dish called “chawan mushi.”
    A year later, Rosensweig was back home and off to college again, earning a master’s degree in Japanese studies. What happened next was a perfect example of preparation-meets-opportunity: A Japanese museum was opening in Delray Beach, and it needed a director. Twenty-five-year-old Rosensweig landed the job.
    After his long tenure at the Morikami, Rosensweig had a five-year stint as director of advancement for the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, and then launched his own business as a consultant for nonprofit arts-related organizations.
    Now 61, he is focusing on science rather than art these days. In May he became a regional executive director at the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. From his office in West Palm Beach, he raises money for scholarships and laboratory equipment for the institute, a renowned international center for scientific inquiry based in Israel.
    Rosensweig’s wife, Nora, recently retired from a 40-year career with the Palm Beach County School District. With their two sons grown and out of the house, the couple is enjoying spending more time together. Lately, they’ve been catching up on past seasons of TV shows such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
    Rosensweig says he and Nora will get back to Japan one of these days. They are particularly interested in seeing how things have changed on the island since last year’s massive earthquake and tsunami. But for now, he’s expanding his knowledge of Israel in connection with his current job.
    “At this point in life, it’s exciting to be learning new things,” he says.
                        — Paula Detwiller

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A. I grew up in Kingston, Pa., near Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, and went to public school. Mine was the first graduating class from a newly consolidated district comprised of nine small communities. It was largely a working class area with what I thought of at the time as a very diverse population: Poles, Italians, Irish, Jews, etc. Although there were no African-Americans, Asian-Americans, or Latinos, there were significant cultural and religious differences among the mostly second- and third-generation Americans. I learned to appreciate other cultures and to get along with people from different backgrounds than my own.
    
    Q. How is your current job alike or different from positions you have held previously at the Morikami Museum and the Norton Museum of Art?
    A.  In short, I’ve gone from art and Japan to science and Israel in my current position with the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. It has been exciting and invigorating to focus my attention on learning new subjects at this point in life while putting to new use many of the skills I learned over the previous 35 years in the museum world.
    
    Q. In the late 1970s, how did you come to establish a center for Japanese culture in South Florida?
    A. It was a classic case of being in the right place at the right time. I had recently completed my M.A. in Japanese studies at the University of Michigan after living in Japan for two years and majoring as a Harvard undergrad in East Asian languages and civilizations.
I was 25, single and “underemployed” in Cambridge, Mass., when I got wind of what would become the Morikami. How bad could a couple of years in Florida be? The Palm Beach County Parks & Recreation Department hired me to put together the museum in August 1976, and the following June we managed to open. I had the pleasure of attending the 35th anniversary celebration this past June.
    
    Q. How did you choose to make your home in Delray Beach?
    A. About the time the Morikami Museum opened, I put $3,000 down on a new house in Rainberry Woods in Delray Beach. I’ve pretty much been here ever since. My wife, Nora, and I moved to our home in the Seagate neighborhood in 1985. Back then we were the young kids; now we’re getting to be the old folks in the neighborhood.
    We love living within walking distance of the beach and Atlantic Avenue.

    Q. What is your favorite part about living in Delray Beach?
    A. Delray Beach is a community that for a long time has understood what “community” means and requires. It has a sense of itself from a historical perspective and an evolving feeling for where it wants to go in the future. I have enjoyed being part of this community through the Morikami, Sister Cities activities, and now as a member of the board of the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum.
    Q. What advice do you have for a young person pursuing a career today?
    A. Be confident in your abilities but humble in understanding that you have to keep learning and adding new skills as the workplace constantly changes. Most important, do something for which you have real passion.

    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    A. For inspiration, I listen to the blues or blues-based rock; to relax, jazz or maybe the Grateful Dead.

    Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. My wife, Nora, whom I met when she volunteered the first summer the Morikami was open, has been my best and most consistent mentor. She has helped me greatly with planning and organization, as well as with supervisory skills.
    My maternal grandfather has always been my role model: a successful businessman, family man, and a true philanthropist.
 
    Q. If someone made a movie of your life, who would you like to play you, and why?
    A. I’d probably say Humphrey Bogart because he would make me seem both cool and tough. My sons would probably want Paul Rudd to play me because he would make me seem goofy and inept. In the Japanese version, I’d like it to be Toshiro Mifune, the quintessential samurai, but it might more appropriately be Takashi Shimada, the stolid everyman of many Kurosawa films.

    Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
    A. I love to laugh and I’ve always surrounded myself with funny people. Nora and my sons, Clark and Drew, make me laugh more than anyone. Fortunately, the boys inherited their mother’s sense of humor.