Rosalind P. Walter
American philanthropist
Rosalind P. Walter (née Palmer; June 25, 1924 – March 4, 2020) was an American philanthropist and humanities advocate who was best known for her late 20th- and early 21st-century support for public television programming across the United States. She also contributed to the improvement of educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth and the protection of wildlife and open space areas.
During World War II, she inspired the creation of "Rosie the Riveter", a song about civilian women employed in the war industry which was penned by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb and popularized by Kay Kyser and The Four Vagabonds.
"Known by the nickname Roz", according to executives of WNET, New York's public television station, Walter "cared deeply about the quality and educational value of public television and understood the importance of reaching the broadest possible audience".
Early life
Rosalind Palmer was born on June 25, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York, a daughter of the late Winthrop (Bushnell) Palmer, chair and professor of literature and fine arts at Long Island University, and Carleton Humphreys Palmer, president of E. R. Squibb and Sons, a Brooklyn, New York-based pharmaceutical company which was founded in 1892 and is now a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.
Raised in New York City, she was educated at Connecticut's Ethel Walker School. In 1940, she lived in Manhattan with her parents and older siblings, Lowell and Winthrop.
During the 1950s, she relocated with her family to Centre Island in Nassau County New York.
World War II
Following her graduation from high school, Rosalind Palmer became one of many young women to secure jobs in the war industry during World War II. "The powerful female image of Rosie (the Riveter) was developed under the auspices of the War Production Board to inspire patriotic behavior," according to heritage writer Ginny McPartland, who reported in 2013 that the idea to give "the female war worker the name of 'Rosie' probably started with a newspaper story about Rosalind P. Walter, an aircraft factory worker in New York." Hired for the night shift, Palmer was, in fact, employed as "a riveter on Corsair fighter planes", according to The New York Times. Additional sources have noted that she worked on F4U marine gull-winged fighter airplanes, and that she "broke records for speed on the production line, advocating for equal pay for her female co-workers.
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