Edward Rosset (1897-1989) - the Nestor of Polish Demographers and Statisticians

On 26 of September 2015 a ceremony was held to mark 70th anniversary of foundation of the University of Lodz and 50th anniversary of establishing the Faculty of Economics and Sociology. On that occasion a commemorative plaque was unveiled to pay tribute Professor Edward Rosset a Great Scholar and one of the Founding Father of the University of Łodz. Professor Edward Rosset was born on 4 of November, 1897 in Łodz and died there on 2 June, 1989. Childhood years of Edward Rosset fell to the time of a very intensive development of textile industry, where his father found employment selling textiles manufactured by local, privately-owned companies to the Russian markets. Rosset’s mother, who studied the piano under Ignacy Paderewski, was a talented pianist, composer and graduate of the Academy of Music in Warsaw. The future scholar was growing up in a large family he had five siblings (a brother and four sisters, all of whom died during the Nazi occupation of Poland). In the year 1916 he passed the examination for the secondary school certificate (Matura) in Philological Secondary School of Bogumił Braun. In the years 1917-1922 he completed his studies at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Warsaw University. After graduating in 1922 Edward Rosset, aged 25, returned to Łodz and took up his first post at the Department of Statistics of the Municipal Office. He was soon promoted, becoming the head of the Department, and he held the position until the end of 1940s, except for the period of war. Rosset made his professional debut at the Department of Statistics when he co-authored the publication entitled „Statistics of the City of Łodz 1918-1920”. Edward Grabowski, the professor of statistics at the Polish Free University and Rosset’s predecessor as the head of the Department, was the chief editor of the publication. Published for the first time in 1922 and then for subsequent years, “Statistical Yearbook of the City of Lodz” was Edward Rosset’s important accomplishment. It was a continuation of the earlier-mentioned „Statistics of the City of Lodz 1918-1920”. Until the year 1929 yearbooks were comprehensive volumes which contained detailed descriptions of the most significant socio-economic and natural