Leonard Rosen, 95, formerly of Center City, a psychologist who became an artist, died of pneumonia Sunday, Jan. 15, at his home in Bandon, Ore.

Dr. Rosen earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1953. For the next 25 years, he maintained a clinical practice in Camden; was a psychologist at the New Jersey Mental Hygiene Clinic in Camden and for the New Jersey prison system; and was on the staff at Cooper University Hospital.

Dr. Rosen was also an instructor at Rutgers University and Glassboro State College, now Rowan University.

At age 61, he had a heart attack and decided to change careers. All his life he had wanted to be an artist, his daughter, Jane Dorval, said, and he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. After graduating in 1984, he volunteered to help recruit new students and won an alumni award for his services.

Dr. Rosen's impressionistic charcoal and pastel drawings and paintings were exhibited locally and at shows and galleries and on the West Coast. He also gave private art lessons and was a guiding influence on his children's and grandchildren's artworks, his daughter said.

He moved to California in the late 1980s and to Oregon six years ago.

A native of Camden, Dr. Rosen dropped out of Camden High School and worked in the family butcher shop in that city. He eventually graduated from Temple University High School and then earned bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

During World War II, he served in the Navy aboard the attack transport John Adams. The ship transported troops and equipment to, and brought out wounded from, embattled islands in the South Pacific, including Guadalcanal and New Britain.

Dr. Rosen became a ham-radio operator when he was 16 and kept up the hobby until a month ago, his daughter said. He was active with emergency ham-radio response teams and was a member of the South Jersey Amateur Radio Association and the Naval Postgraduate School Amateur Radio Club.

Though he was known for his work as a psychologist and as a ham-radio operator, "he considered art his primary and most meaningful profession," his daughter said.

In addition to his daughter, Dr. Rosen is survived by his wife, Tonya; a son, William; two sisters; four grandchildren; and a former wife, Ruth Rosen. A former wife, Linda Miller, preceded him in death.

Services will be private. Dr. Rosen donated his body to science.

Text: Sally A. Downey