[THE DC]

The next display in the convention was a tribute to the paper model designer, Alan Rose. It was designed and presented by Pete Ansoff.

Mr. Rose was a person I would have liked to thank (for several reasons that will soon be explained), but he passed away before I had the chance. Mr. Rose was born in Germany in 1948 and lived until fairly recent. A typical Army brat, he moved around, seeing the world as a youth and developed an appreciation for design. He studied art in school and became an architect, designer, graphic designer for The National Lampoon Magazine, and a prolific paper model designer.

His first paper model design was the Empire State Building, coincidentally my first paper model, and still one of my favorites. This was not only a well drawn kit, but stood about four feet tall; permitting modification and even the attachment of little King Kong figures, which was a real bonus to a you man.

Mr. Rose then designed a Chrysler Building, another favorite of mine, and the proceeded to publish a series of other large paper models based upon famous architecture; the Brooklyn Bridge (actually published before the Chrysler Building), the Tower of London, the Sears Tower, the Eiffel Tower, the U.S. Capital, the Taj Mahal, the Vatican, and a Japanese Pagoda. He also developed a kit for the Disney, Cinderella Castle and also added to his publishing portfolio, several non-buildings; an art-deco train diorama, another art-deco diner set, a route 66 tribute, a Titanic & Hindenburg kit, a San Francisco Cable Car, and even a Corvette. He even designed a five foot Saturn 5 Rocket and a similar sized DC-3, which I have never seen (I'm going to be hunting for one!) until this convention.

This varied collection was produced from the late seventies inspiration at a party,to the 90s when his last book was published. It introduced many to the craft (including me) and made such kits affordable and accessible when many others were either over-seas or inaccessible to the average youth (due to limited directions or limited availability in the States).

I was fortunate enough to benefit from Mr Rose's work last year. When Covid-19 struck, closing up many sources of entertainment, and quarantining youth in group homes, we set up a contests between different houses and clinics to build some of Mr. Rose's kits in a friendly competition. It made the early hours of the pandemic more tolerable to youth who were being denied visits from family and friends, and could not really go anywhere for diversion. Peter Heesch was instrumental in helping with this effort, as he went out of his way to rush some kits to me when our orders to eBay ran into troubles.

Some of the youth never finished the kits, struggling with their first model project (many youth today have very little exposure to mechanical tasks, having mostly computer-driven experiences) and at the time, I was unable to visit the different locations to help staff promote the event) where other youth were successful in completing their kits. A couple met with disastrous fates; ironically a water-logged (but not ice berg-struck) Titanic kit delivery and a Hindenburg that crashed. Those that did complete their kits provided a virtual presentation of their work to other homes, describing some research that they did on the topic of their build, providing their build experiences and on other interesting learnings gathered, during that they had build. Information was shared about the Apollo missions, about those that died when building the Sears Tower was constructed, and even about the black cat that supposedly haunts the Capital building. Several youth shared how the experience taught them more than about the kit; one stating that once his group stopped arguing with each other, the process went well and the experience was more enjoyable. He took the Sears Tower home with him when he discharged from the program.

Mr. Rose had long passed away (2015) but this last summer, his work had become very helpful during a trying time of youth care. I wish he could have heard about how his efforts had been so helpful during a very difficult time for some young people' who were already challenged.


The exhibit displayed Alan Rose's work (see pic 1). It also provided some detail about the library of accomplishment (see pic 2). The exhibit even illustrated the author prone, next to some of his large creations (see pic 3).