Rose K. Katz, 80, Temple U. adviser

Rose Kibrick Katz, 80, of Wyncote, a retired associate dean at Temple University who took special interest in helping students with personal problems succeed, died Monday of a brain tumor at Keystone House hospice in Wyndmoor.

Raised in Strawberry Mansion, she moved to Overbrook and graduated from Overbrook High School in 1945. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1949 in psychology from Pennsylvania State University. In 1950, she married Benjamin Katz, who later became a professor of marketing at what is now Philadelphia University.

While raising three children in Abington, Mrs. Katz earned a master's degree in 1960 in counseling at Temple. She was a guidance counselor at Kensington High School for Girls for a few years.

In the late 1960s, Mrs. Katz became an academic adviser at Temple. She went on to become director of Temple's Academic Advising Center and was later an associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

"Rose created the advising center. She directed a large staff and mentored many new faculty advisers back when it was a new profession," said Jane Stringer, a former director of the center. "She also helped countless students."

Mrs. Katz took a special interest in students who faced challenges in their personal or family life. She also served on Temple's Jewish campus activities board.

In 1988, Mrs. Katz established the academic advising center at Temple University of Japan. She retired in 1990.

Mrs. Katz was an adventuresome world traveler. She visited Russia and Ukraine, where she and her husband supported "refuseniks," Jews who had been refused exit visas from the former Soviet Union. Her husband died in 1984.

Mrs. Katz often traveled solo - to Asia, trekking in the Himalayas, and for white-water rafting in Chile, Costa Rica and Guatemala and on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

"When she was 75, I told her it was too bad she never went rock climbing," son Stephen said. "She then climbed on top of the refrigerator, stood up, and said, 'Ta-da,' as I took her picture. I secretly sent that picture to 25 of her good friends with no explanation. They talked about that for years."

Mrs. Katz was active in her community here and in Israel. She volunteered with organizations, including Retired Senior Volunteers Program of Montgomery County (of which she was president) and the Walnut Street Theatre.

She volunteered in a program that provided juvenile offenders with alternatives to incarceration and often accompanied police to scenes of domestic violence.

Mrs. Katz was a member of Or Hadash Reconstructionist Congregation and of Americans for Israel and Torah, a network of services for children at risk in Israel.

In addition to her son Stephen, Mrs. Katz is survived by another son, James; a daughter, Joan Betesh; 11 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; a sister; and her partner of 20 years, Barry Zimmerman.

A funeral was held yesterday.

Memorial donations may be sent to AMIT, Box 342, Wynnewood, Pa. 19096.