Acting Teacher Rose Schulman

Rose Schulman, a veteran of more than half a century as actress, director and teacher with the nation’s oldest repertory theater, the Hedgerow Theater of Rose Valley, Pa., has died at the age of 79.

She died after a heart attack July 30 in Hedgerow House, the theater’s official residence, associates in Los Angeles said last week. Miss Schulman had continued to teach acting classes at the repertory company, founded in 1923 by Jasper Deeter, until shortly before her death.

Over the years, her students included Richard Basehart, Anne Baxter, Keir Dullea and Margo Skinner.

Although she once described her three loves as “horses, poker and men,” her greatest passion was the theater. She was a tough and demanding teacher. The goal, she repeatedly told her students, was to combine “the freedom of the bird and the precision of the watchmaker.”

Miss Schulman is survived by a brother, Albert Schulman of Philadelphia, and sister, Dorothy Bordock of Brooklyn.

A memorial service will be conducted at noon Sept. 3 at Hedgerow Theater, and her ashes will be scattered in the theater garden.