Phyllis Rochelle

1929 - December 14, 2012

Phyllis Rochelle

CARMEL - Phyllis Rochelle, age 83, a retired university professor and Dean of the School of Social Work at San Francisco State University, died of metastatic breast cancer on December 14, 2012. She was the daughter of Henry and Hazel Rochelle of Lima, Ohio.

Dr. Rochelle, a Fulbright scholar at the London School of Economics, earned her doctorate in Social Work at the University of California. During her 27 years of teaching and administrative career, she served on several national and local Boards of Directors, was a member of the accreditation commission, and national vice-president for the Council on Social Work Education. She chaired numerous accreditation teams for graduate and undergraduate programs in social work across the United States. She also served on the Governor's Task Force on Effective Mobilization of Manpower in the field of corrections, Pupil Personnel Services, Teacher Preparation and Licensing Commission, Chairperson of the Council of Deans and Directors of California Schools of Social Work; all of which followed her clinical work with disturbed juveniles as a psychiatric social worker for the California Youth Authority and the Family Court Center in Toledo, Ohio. Upon her retirement as professor emerita from San Francisco State University, she moved to Carmel in 1988.

Always a social activist in every community in which she lived; she was one of the founders and chairperson of the Breast Cancer Assistance Group of Monterey Peninsula which had its beginnings in 1995.

She is survived by her good friend, M. Taylor; sister, Jenelle (Mark) Dove in Dublin, Ohio; four nieces and six nephews and their children; and her loving pets, Jodie and Jesse.

The family wishes to thank Dr. Karen Tierney, and Drs. Jerome Rubin, Bradley Tamler, Joy Smith, R.N., and the entire Cancer Center and Radiation Department of the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula for all their kind attention and support.

Graveside services will be held in Ohio at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to the educational or special needs fund of the Breast Cancer Assistance Group of the Monterey Peninsula, P.O. Box 221582, Carmel, California 93922-1582.

We will not cry because you died. We will smile because you lived!