Louise M. Rosenblatt, Dr. Harvey J. Tesser, John C. Puckett, Jeanne Sobine.
Louise M. Rosenblatt
Professor of English education
ARLINGTON, Va. Louise M. Rosenblatt died Feb. 8 at Virginia Hospital Center. She was 100.
Dr. Rosenblatt was a Princeton resident from the early 1950s until two years ago, when she moved to live with her son in Arlington.
She was a scholar of reading and the teaching of literature and an emeritus professor of English education at New York University. She later was a visiting professor at Rutgers University.
She is credited with developing a revolutionary approach to reading and teaching of literature with the 1938 publication of "Literature as Exploration," which is still in print.
Her last book, "Making Meaning with Texts: Selected Essays," was published just this month.
Her central argument was that the act of reading was a dynamic "transaction" between the reader and the text, and the meaning of any text lay not in the work itself but in the reader’s interaction with it, be it Shakespeare, a novel by Toni Morrison or a car owner’s manual.
"She has probably influenced more teachers in their ways of dealing with literature than any other critic," wrote Wayne Booth of the University of Chicago in the foreword to the current edition of "Literature and Exploration."
An anonymous reviewer on the Amazon.com Web site said simply, "If you teach literature (at any level) and haven’t read this book, you probably don’t know what you are doing."
Her approach was not without controversy. It was at odds with the New Criticism movement as well as back-to-basics tenets.
Born in Atlantic City, she received a bachelor’s degree in 1925 from Barnard College, where she developed a friendship with Margaret Mead and Léonie Adams, part of a group called "The Ash Can Cats."
She then studied in France, where she met Gertrude Stein, Andre Gide and Robert Penn Warren and where she ultimately received a doctorate in comparative literature from the Sorbonne in 1931.
She was an instructor at Barnard from 1927 to 1938 and an assistant professor at Brooklyn College from 1938 to 1948, when she came to NYU. On her retirement from NYU in 1972, she received the school’s Great Teacher Award.
In addition to teaching at Rutgers, she was also a visiting professor at the University of Miami and was a member of the faculty institutes in English at many universities.
She was elected to the International Reading Association Hall of Fame in 1992 and received the John Dewey Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
In November, she spoke to a standing-room-only session of a national convention of English teachers in Indianapolis.
Dr. Rosenblatt was the wife of the late Sidney Ratner an economic historian at Rutgers who died in 1996. They were married for 63 years. She is survived by her son, Jonathan Ratner of Arlington, Va.; and a granddaughter, Anna.
Dr. Harvey J. Tesser
First Montgomery dentist
MONTGOMERY Dr. Harvey J. Tesser died Thursday. He was 66.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was a longtime Montgomery resident.
Dr. Tesser was a family practice dentist for more than 40 years, retiring in December. He was the first dentist to practice in Montgomery Township.
He was a founder of the Jewish Community Center of Belle Mead and was a member of the board of directors of the Central New Jersey Jewish Home for the Aged in Somerset.
An avid golfer, he was a member of the Raritan Valley Country Club.
He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Marian Tesser; daughter and son-in-law Deborah and Eric Applegate of Montgomery; sons and daughter-in-law Jonathan and Virginia of Princeton, Adam of Hoboken and Michael of Montgomery; brothers Sheldon and Richard Tesser of New York; and grandchildren Marissa and Benjamin Applegate and Brian, Daniel and Andrew Tesser.
The funeral was Sunday.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Jewish Community Center of Belle Mead, 253 Griggstown Road, Belle Mead, NJ 08502 or Central NJ Jewish Home for the Aged, 380 DeMott Lane, Somerset, NJ 08873.
Arrangements were by Mount Sinai Memorial Chapels, East Brunswick.
John C. Puckett
Antiques dealer
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. John C. Puckett, formerly of New Hope, Pa., died Feb. 6 in Beebe Medical Center, Lewes, Del., after a short illness.
He owned and operated the Pink House Antique Shop on Ferry Street in New Hope before moving to Rehoboth Beach in late 2003. He also organized many antique shows throughout the Princeton area and in Bucks County, Pa.
A memorial service is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sunday, March 6 at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, 247 N. Main St., Lambertville.
Arrangements are by Van Horn-McDonough Funeral Home, Lambertville.
Jeanne Sobine
Brother lives in West Windsor
MANALAPAN Jeanne Sobine died Sunday at CentraState Medical Center, Freehold. She was 49.
Born in Newark, she was raised in West Orange and lived in North Brunswick for four years and East Windsor for nine years before moving to Manalapan 17 years ago.
She was a teacher at the Freehold Regional School District for 20 years, vice principal of Mercer County Vocational Technical School in Ewing for two years, and was named one of the school district’s high school principals last year.
She was co-owner of Personally Yours Invitation Business in Manalapan.
She was a past member and served as an officer for the CentraState Medical Center Volunteer Auxiliary.
A West Orange Mountain High School graduate, she received a bachelor’s degree from Douglass College at Rutgers University and a master’s from Farleigh Dickinson University.
She is survived by her husband of 30 years, Richard; daughters Shari Sobine of Hoboken and Rachel Sobine of New York City; parents Harold and Barbara Fine of Monroe Township; brother and sister-in-law Dr. Rick and Debi Fine of West Windsor; and four nephews.
Services are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. today at Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapels, Manalapan.
Burial will follow at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, Iselin.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 120 Wall St., 19th Floor, New York, NY 10005.

