Maud Rosenthal
Maud Ruth Levy: born London 22 April 1909; married 1947 Albi Rosenthal (one son, two daughters, and one son deceased); died Oxford 18 December 2007
Maud was the wife of Albi Rosenthal and mother of television presenter Jim Rosenthal and had long connections with Oxford. Her late father was the scholar Dr Oscar Levy, who edited the first complete English edition of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s works.
Following the Blitz, Maud and her husband relocated from London to Oxford with their antiquarian book-selling business, A Rosenthal – which still exists. They eventually moved to Half Acre (now called Oakline), on Boars Hill.
While Albi divided his time between Oxford and London, Maud focused on local interests, helping with fundraising activities at Magdalen College School, where Jim excelled on the sports field, helped with the growth and publicising of the Oxford Subscription Concerts and for the Oxford University Orchestra, of which her husband was a member.
Maud served on the committee of the Churchill Memorial Concerts, held annually at Blenheim Palace and also had a long involvement with the Oxford Preservation Trust, going back over 25 years, which led to her appointment as patron of the Boars Hill committee in May 2006.
From the 1970s, her greatest wish was that the inhabitants of Boars Hill should get to know each other better.
In 1974 she co-founded the Boars Hill Association, which still thrives, and hosted regular cultural events at the family home and, as secretary, oversaw the production of the BHA Newsletter for the first 20 years.
She presided over the last lecture at Half Acre, on Handel’s London, on November 25 2007.
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The above text has been amended from an obituary written for the Oxford Mail by Chris Kearney.