Lillian Elizabeth Rossini

Lillian Elizabeth Rossini, aged 91, a loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and a decades-long Catholic educator, died with her family at her side on July 18, 2024, in the loving care of Morningside House Assisted Living Community in Ellicott City, Maryland after a long, full life.

Lillian Elizabeth Adamec was born June 29, 1933, in New York City, the first child and only daughter of Paul and Lillian (Prajka) Adamec. Her father was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Straznice, in what is now the Czech Republic. Her mother, of Moravian descent, was born in New York. Proud of their Czech heritage, Lillian spoke only Czech at home until she started school, but quickly mastered English while in first grade. Weekends were spent socializing at the local “Sokol Club” surrounded by numerous friends and family. For a short period after World War II, she would accompany her father and help translate for Czech refugees arriving at the docks of New York City. She later forgot most of her Czech, but in 2016 went to Prague and to Straznice, to see the house where her father was born and in which the family still lives. She was singing songs in Czech on the day before she moved to hospice.

Her earliest years were spent in Manhattan, and later the family moved to the Bronx. Her parents instilled a strong Catholic faith in her, and the family often said that the only two times she missed Mass was the Sunday after each daughter was born. On one occasion, while staying in a national park, she drove 75 miles each way to attend Mass, in a Native American mission church. 

Lillian’s father also placed a high value on a good education and reinforced this by his own reading of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a little every night after dinner, until he completed the set from A to Z. Lillian attended New York’s Cathedral High School, graduating in 1950. (She skipped second grade). In 1954 with her father’s determined support, she graduated from the College of Mount Saint Vincent with a degree in French and Education. She was the first in her family to attend college. 

At a Valentine’s Day dance in 1952 she met the love of her life Henry (Hank) G. Rossini, whom she married on July 2, 1955. After her college graduation, her first job was teaching French in the New York City Public Schools. She continued to teach after her marriage, but as was the custom of the time, was required to resign when she became pregnant with her first child.   When her children were in elementary school, she returned to teaching, this time in a Catholic school in Upstate New York and then subsequently in Kentucky before moving to California, where she initially taught at the Mission School in San Juan Capistrano and then for over 15 years at her home parish of Our Lady of Fatima in San Clemente. She retired in 1995, but soon returned to the classroom part time.

Lillian taught in Catholic schools for nearly four decades, at first as a classroom elementary teacher and later specializing as a middle school math teacher. Many students mastered algebra under her tutelage, and later came back to visit, thanking her for creating in them a love for math. She epitomized the saying that “a teacher affects eternity; one can never tell where their influence ends”. She was strict but fair. With the raise of a single eyebrow, she could put any unruly student or an entire classroom back in line. More importantly, she encouraged her students to grow in faith as they grew in knowledge, to traverse their own path toward excellence, and to become the best versions of themselves. It is no surprise that near the end of her career she received recognition for her dedication to the field of education though the Honor a Teacher Initiative at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Her retirement years were spent traveling with Hank both domestically and internationally, and of course, visiting the grandchildren and great-grandchildren who were her pride and joy.  Throughout her life she was an avid reader, at times reading over four books a week. She loved to play Rummikub, and often came from behind to defeat her opponents. Over the past two years, as her mind became cloudy, she started to tell fantastic stories intermixing truth and fiction. She enthralled all those who listened to them. Her best tales were about a trip to the North Pole, surviving a plane crash in the Andes, or being onboard a ship torpedoed by a U-boat in World War II.  

In 2011 Lillian lost her loving husband Hank after nearly 56 years of marriage.  Her parents and brothers Edward and Francis also predeceased her. She is survived by her daughter Lillian and her husband Bill, of Wassenaar, Netherlands; daughter Linda and her husband Trum of Ellicott City, who both cared for her for the last six years of her life; grandchildren Billy Stevenson and his wife Frauke of Stuttgart, Germany, Tim Stevenson of Voorburg, Netherlands, Elizabeth Mantooth and her husband Jonathan of Simpsonville, SC, and Amanda Franklin and her husband Brian of Glenwood, MD, and by five great-grandchildren. Her brother Paul, of Bedford, TX, also survives her, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at Saint Louis Roman Catholic Church, 12500 Clarksville Pike, Clarksville, Maryland on Friday, July 26, 2024, at 10:00 AM. Interment will be alongside Hank in Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, California. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the last school at which she taught, Our Lady of Fatima Academy. Gifts can be made online at https://www.olfschool.net/ways-to-give/ or by mail to Our Lady of Fatima Academy, Attn: Advancement, 105 N. La Esperanza, San Clemente, CA 92672.

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