EAST BERNE — Rose Marie Lamorella helped people who most needed it — she helped run programs that taught prisoners, drug addicts, and the homeless how to read. She did this by understanding their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Ms. Lamorella died unexpectedly on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016, at St. Peter’s Hospital. She was 75.

“She was always helping somebody,” said her sister, Patricia Lamorella. “She never left anybody out.”

Patricia Lamorella, who was born three years after Rose Marie, recalled how, when her older sister  went horseback riding, she’d say, “You’re coming too.” Patricia Lamorella went on, “We were very close.”

Ms. Lamorella was born on Sept. 27, 1941 in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Her father, Joseph Lamorella, worked in the steel mills and her mother, Victoria (née Lombardo) Lamorella, was a homemaker.

“We just made ends meet,” said her sister. “My father was very smart. They didn’t have the money for college back then; you worked to support your family. He always encouraged my sister to be a teacher. That’s what she wanted to do since she was little.”

Ms. Lamorella was serious, even as a youngster, her sister said. “She wasn’t mischievous.”

She attended public schools in New Castle and then, after graduating from Clarion College, Ms. Lamorella became an elementary-school teacher in Pittsburgh.

She went on to earn a master of science degree in adult education from City University of New York and was a longtime educator for the Albany City School District at the Adult Learning Center. She retired in 1996.

Ms. Lamorella was highly regarded for her work in developing the practice of diagnostic prescriptive learning. One of her colleagues, John Hogan, explained that this involved testing a student to see what skills she or he had — a diagnosis — and then developing lessons — a prescription — to fill in the voids.

Mr. Hoagland, a teacher, met Ms. Lamorella in 1989 at a national convention for educators of adults and, when he moved to Albany, she offered him a spot as a volunteer teaching adults to read in the night-school program. Mr. Hogan eventually headed the city school’s adult programs, which shut down when he retired in  2012.

“She wrote all the grants to operate the program and worked with people to develop the program,” he said of Ms. Lamorella. “She trained people all over the state.”

This included training educators in programs in employment readiness and workplace literacy and in the New York State prison system, drug-treatment facilities, and homeless shelters.

“She felt like she was doing something for someone who needed it,” said her sister. “She helped a lot of people with her guidance and by being a friend.”

In her “down time,” her sister said, Ms. Lamorella enjoyed crafts including making baskets, doing macrame, and crocheting. “She tried everything,” Patricia Lamorella said.

Ms. Lamorella had a home on the lake in East Berne and loved living there, her sister said. “She loved all the people there.”

Mr. Hoagland said of the adult educators he and Ms. Lamorella worked with, “A bunch of us would hang out together.” Ms. Lamorella particularly enjoyed music and attended many Old Songs concerts as well as the annual Saratoga jazz festival.

A group of her friends are planning to hold a musical memorial for her, tentatively scheduled for July 29 on a Helderberg farm, said Mr Hogan.

“She had a lot of friends there. She loved living on Helderberg Lake,” said Mr. Hogan. Ms. Lamorella made friends wherever she went, he said.

“She was a very giving person — the kind of person that, once you met her, you’d think of her as a friend,” said Mr. Hoagland. “She’d drop anything to help. If you needed it, she’d be there.”

Patricia Lamorella concluded of her sister, “She would never say no to anyone.”

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Rose Marie Lamorella is survived by her sister, Patricia Lamorella, of New Castle, Pennsylvania; her brother-in-law, William Gressens III of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; her loving godchildren; and many dear cousins and other relatives.

“Rose is also survived by many devoted and loving friends from many periods of her life and career,” her family wrote in a tribute.

Her parents, Joseph and Victoria (née Lombardo) Lamorella, died before her as did her sister, Josetta (née Lamorella) Gressen.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend her Memorial Mass to be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, at St. Matthew’s Church at 25 Mountainview St. in Voorheesville. Arrangements are by the Daniel Keenan Funeral Home. Mourners may leave condolences online at www.danielkeenanfuneralhome.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to organizations in the community that she has supported: Mercy House Women’s Shelter, 12 St. Joseph’s Terrace, Albany, NY 12210, and the Underground Railroad History Project at the Meyers Residence, 194 Livingston Ave., Albany, NY 12210.
— Melissa Hale-Spencer