Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

Optical Shop Closes; To Reopen in Fall

END OF AN ERA
Optical Shop Closes
To Reopen in Fall

It was in September, 1965, at the opening of the MIT (now Stratton) 
Student Center, that Arthur Rosenbaum opened the Tech Optical Shop in 
the basement level of the building.

And there it has remained for the last 26 years.

'He came with the building,' his wife Anne recalled last Friday (June 7) 
before closing the door to the shop for the last time. Her husband died 
last August and Anne kept the shop open, but now she has sold the 
business to the MIT Medical Department, which will operate the shop 
starting in the fall.

Anne noted that 'Ôall the records of everyone who ever did business with 
us" will be available to the Medical Department.

Linda L. Rounds, executive director of the Medical Department, said the 
shop will be refurbished and reopened after Labor Day as the MIT Optical 
Shop, under the direction of the coordinator of eye service, Dr. Patti 
A. Augeri. "This is a new venture for the Medical Department, but it 
seemed like an ideal fit," Ms. Rounds said. 

In tracing the history of the shop, Anne said her husband had been an 
optician with the Harvard Coop in Harvard Square for 20 years when the 
general manager there asked him if he wanted to operate the shop planned 
for the MIT Coop.

He agreed and the rest is history. The shop functioned as part of the 
Coop for many years and more recently was run independently by Mr. 
Rosenbaum.

"He really enjoyed it here at MIT," Mrs. Rosenbaum said. 'He loved every 
minute of it and everybody in the community. He also had a wonderful 
reputation.'

That he did.

Mr. Rosenbaum was known for his friendly, helpful and cheerful mannerÑas 
well as his professional skills. And when time allowed, he liked to 
shoot a few games of pool at the nearby recreation room, displaying a 
steady hand and sharp eye for the right shot.

Mrs. Rosenbaum, a Winthrop resident, often helped out her husband in the 
shop, particularly in recent years. She, too, will miss the community. 
"They're all such wonderful people. It's a wrench,"she said.