Rosa Ramirez, fearless Camden community activist and longtime school coordinator, has died at 80

Rosa Ramirez, 80, of Camden, a fearless and outspoken community activist and longtime student coordinator at St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral School, died Friday, Oct. 7, of failure to thrive at her daughter’s home in South Jersey.

Dedicated to social justice and inspired by her faith and an all-consuming love of her community, Mrs. Ramirez improved Camden and the lives of its citizens by diving into thorny public controversies concerning the police, affordable housing, neighborhood development, prisons, sewage treatment, school lunches, and other civic topics.

For more than 20 years, she organized movements, led protests, argued with decision-makers, confronted criminals, and vigorously represented the Camden residents she cherished. Her friends and colleagues called her the “justice warrior,” and Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen said she was “a trailblazer, social justice icon, and a leader among leaders.”

She usually kept her trademark bullhorn close by just in case, and she had a box full of ceremonial pens she was awarded at the many legislative signings she attended. “She was a force to be reckoned with,” said Heyward D. Wiggins III, pastor at Camden Bible Tabernacle.

In April 2011, Mrs. Ramirez joined local police, city officials, and state legislators at a North Camden intersection as they celebrated stronger laws to rearrest drug dealers. “Finally, finally, we got what we wanted,” she told The Inquirer. “I have a dream to see the children of this city play in the streets. I want to hear the birds singing.”

“She wasn’t afraid of anything. She taught me that.”

In 1983, Mrs. Ramirez helped found Camden Churches Organized for People, a grassroots activist group that mobilized thousands of city residents about important issues. She served on the Camden economic recovery board, was a leader with the St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society for housing development, and worked for three decades as a student coordinator, counselor, translator, and liaison between families and faculty at St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral School.

In an online tribute, a former student at St. Joseph said: “She was a fighter and a light in a city others left for dead in the dark.” Her granddaughter Shania Jimenez said: “She wasn’t afraid of anything. She taught me that.”

At a contentious 1990 public meeting about sewer bill relief, she succinctly defined her overall goal as an activist. “My friends, we are not asking for a handout,” she said. “We are asking for something that is just, right, and justifiable to us, the people of Camden. … We want justice because we’ve had enough.”

At another 1990 public meeting, about the mayor’s policies on drugs and crime, her supporters chanted: ‘’Rosa, you run for mayor. We’ll vote for you.”

“If you had a problem, she would take you in,” said her daughter Melissa Portscheller. “She always said, ‘I have enough love for everybody in my city.’”

Born Sept. 17, 1942, in Vieques, Puerto Rico, Rosa Maria Guerra moved to North Camden when she was 10. She graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1960, learned accounting and shorthand at business school, and worked at first for a furniture company and the welfare department of the Camden County Board of Social Services.

She met Roberto Ramirez at a wedding, and they married in 1966, and had daughters Nancy and Melissa. She began working at St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral School in 1980 and retired in 2012.

Mrs. Rameriz liked to spend time with her family and friends in the Pocono Mountains and at the Shore in Wildwood. She made her husband breakfast every morning, packed his lunch, and delayed her evening meetings until after she had served dinner to the entire family.

She met the Pope and Bon Jovi, received a housing award from President Barack Obama, and served as grand marshal in local parades. She used a wheelchair for the last 10 years due to a stroke.

“She was a very good woman,” her husband said. Her cousin, Cesar Guerra, said: “When anyone needed her, she was there.”

City Council President Angel Fuentes said: “We will never forget the spirit and legacy of Rosa Ramirez.” Her daughter Nancy Rodriguez said: “She had a full life. But to me, she was just my mom. She did a good job, and the work will go on.”

In addition to her husband, daughters, granddaughter, and cousin, Mrs. Ramirez is survived by two more granddaughters, two sisters, and other relatives.

Services were Oct. 13 and 14.

Donations in her name may be made to the Rosa Ramirez scholarship fund, St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society, 20 Church St., Camden, N.J. 08105.