Organize your vital information – My Family Record Book by Harris (Hershey) Rosen

If you are getting ready for tax preparation, you know that despite your best efforts, you are probably still looking for boxes and envelopes of receipts and forms. Just think of this time next year – and if you get organized the Hershey Rosen way, you will not have that problem!

Harris “Hershey” Rosen – My Family Record Book

“During my first week of college at Harvard, the president of the university addressed our freshman class and explained that it was not the university’s purpose in the next four years to have us memorize information – but rather, to learn where to get it,” says Harris “Hershey” Rosen, whose iconic Rhode Island company gave him that yummy nickname. 

School House Candy was indeed an iconic RI company – and Hershey ran the company for over 40 years, where, in the days before computers, he had to develop systems that would help him – and others – in locating any item housed in five factories, covering 600,000 square feet.

That Harvard way of thinking would eventually lead Hershey, after retirement, into publishing “My Family Record Book”, which is actually a second publication of his guide to being able to locate and document important items of information in one’s personal life – “this is not just a collection of where your life insurance policy is or the deed to the house.  It’s much more than that – it’s the details of your life that only you know – like the home safe in the way-back of the closet (and how to get into it and what’s there), or the keys to the storage facility (and where the facility is) that has some old antiques you’ve wanted to keep for the grandchildren”.

Harris “Hershey” Rosen has focused on controlling chaos since 1954. He was a Financial Control Officer in the U.S. Army, where he received a Letter of Commendation for improvement to its worldwide accounting system. Next, on to satisfying everyone’s sweet tooth at the candy company for 40 years. Hershey went on to become a mediator – settling over 200 disputes for the state of Rhode Island and The Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island. He was also asked to team-teach management courses at the University of Rhode Island, where he enthusiastically challenged the textbook with real-life experiences, to the delight and edification of the students.
Always passionate about assisting others, Hershey has been a director or trustee of numerous boards and organizations, and his professional resume of accomplishments goes on for pages. 

He has most recently written My Family Record Book to help others protect their spouses, and family members, from the intense stress that will occur if one does not share financial information and knowledge critical to a functioning home – or business.

While Hershey talks mostly about the book’s importance after one’s death, it is also valuable for any time someone may be away for an extended vacation, hospital stay, or even snow birding with others in charge of the home.

While there are efficiency experts and organizing specialists sprouting up like weeds, most of us know that the really important information rests in what sits on our shoulders…and having a resource guide that lets us begin to commit that memory to paper is a very personal – and very needed task.  We’ve all been part of what happens in a family when that information is missing – and can never again be retrieved.

Hershey, lives in Providence, with his “beloved wife, Myrna”, and they enjoy visits with their combined five children and ten grandchildren. The book is available at all local bookstores – and, of course, on Amazon. 

Hershey enjoys speaking to groups interesting in learning more. For more information go to: www.myfamilyrecordbook.com.

He will also be at the Cumberland Library author event on Saturday, February 15th, from 1-4pm.