Evidence of Rochelle's Smiling Face
and"Don't Mess With Me" Style

Always happy when someone asks, she explains that she "fell in love with swans and classical ballet after seeing Swan Lake" at the age of four, and the passion has continued ever since. Neighbors and relatives started giving her swan soap dishes, planters, and figurines, and by age nine, she had three shelves full of swans, and a collection that has grown well into the thousands. "My house looks like Swan Lake — everything from the butter dish to the ceiling fixture has swans," she explains enthusiastically.

Her favorite swan, however, is her 25 year old ballerina daughter, Marla, who is a dancer and faculty member of Pennsylvania Ballet. Rochelle's son, Kevin, 27, is also in the performing arts and is now preparing for international competition in opera but earning his living doing website development for major companies using Flash 5 and state of the art animation. "I adopted Kevin from Vietnam when he was about ten months old — he came on 'Operation Babylift' and made it out just before Saigon fell," Rochelle adds. He is now living in Tel Aviv, speaks 8 languages, is politically astute, and has met with world leaders and peace prize winners during the past few years while on a "world-trek odyssey" over several continents. "Keeping in touch with Kevin via computer has been soooo great — he's going to Vietnam for the next three months, and cyber cafes will be very much appreciated," she said.

Rochelle is a psychologist in private practice in Bala Cynwyd, and does psycho-therapy with children, adolescents and adults. She also works with schools and social agencies and especially likes the challenge of providing service to severely behaviorally-disordered urban youth. She also provides services to deaf individuals as she is fluent in American Sign Language. The practice offers marriage and family therapy, personal injury, trauma, weight management, identity support, career counseling, and employee assistance intervention.

Rochelle grew up in West Philly, graduated from Overbrook High School, and went to St. Joseph's University evening division while working during the day, and then attended graduate school in Chicago. While at Overbrook High, she was in a co-op program and worked a week and went to school a week during senior year. She was lucky enough to be working at Cayuga Federal Savings and Loan at 13th and Sansom in 1960 when the Vice President of the Bank, Robert Speetles, recognized her never-ending need to be intellectually challenged and asked her if she wanted to learn to use the NCR 390 computer that was being built wall-to-wall in a large back room at the bank. With her 120 wpm typing skills and tons of enthusiasm, she not only learned to use this punch card system, but made friends with every inch of the monstrous machine that surrounded her. "The NCR 390 was announced in May, 1961, and it was already up and running with me, at age 16, at the helm of what I knew was the beginning of great things to come," she adds. Rochelle's love for computers has deep roots.

Rochelle's initial Mac SE and LaserWriter II SC joined her family in 1988. "It not only handled my office billing program and word-processing needs, but it soon provided my son with music-writing software like Finale to enhance his composition skills. Here was this little desktop miracle — quite a contrast to the room full of NCR 390 equipment I had known. While I now have a G-4 Dual and high-end printer, I still use 2 SE's, a PowerBook 170, and my old, loyal laser printer. I couldn't bear to dispose of my initial SE that died a year or so ago, so it is still working in my office standing like a little soldier as a doorstop." She added, "He serves, too, who only stands and waits." — (a quote from Rochelle to keep Moe happy).

In between working 62 hours a week, Rochelle can be found trying to keep about five dozen orchids alive, baking bread and cakes, attending ballets, playing with her poodle Mocha, or going all over the tri-state area looking for swans at garage sales, flea markets and antique shops, and eating Chinese food with a myriad of friends. She has done volunteer work over the years for children's theater and dance programs. She likes to write and authored "A Rainbow of Rhymes for Children" and has two more children's books evolving on her hard drive. Rochelle didn't think I'd find anything interesting to write about her life.

Rochelle noted that she never liked belonging to groups or clubs so she was surprised to find that she loves MLMUG. "I'm just getting into digital video, Photoshop, Flash, and moving beyond my typical brochure-making in graphic design," she says. "I'm so impressed by the degree of knowledge in this group but even more by the sharing and caring — great people — it's the best!"

— Maria O. Arguello