On their last date, days before he died, Naudra-Rowel Britt and her husband talked in their car for three hours after going out to dinner. That wasn’t unusual.

“We would talk every day at length,” Rowel-Britt said. “He was one of the most intelligent people I have ever been blessed with knowing.”

Roosevelt “Rose” Britt III ’98 died Feb. 2, 2023. He was only 51, but “people would tell him, ‘You have the presence of a very old man. You’re so wise.’”

Rowel-Britt described her husband, who majored in philosophy at Old Dominion University, as a “deep thinker” fluent in the Bible, history and international events. “He was also interested in how money played a part in the U.S. and how the banking system operated.”

Britt, who initially planned to major in music, learned to play the piano when he was 8. When Rowel-Britt first heard him at his family’s home in Suffolk, Va., “he played full-on classical music. I was like, ‘Whoa! OK, I found my husband.’”

They began dating in 1997 when both were at ODU. They married in 2000 and moved to Annapolis, Md., where Britt worked in teaching and social service jobs, including as middle school music teacher and director of the Boys & Girls Club. “He especially connected with teenagers,” Rowel-Britt said. “A lot of them were drawn to him, and he gave them amazing advice.” His last job was at an alternative school for teenagers with disabilities. Britt helped craft individualized lesson plans.“Parents begged to work with him,” said Rowel-Britt, who is a special-education teacher.

“He cared almost to a fault about things,” she said. “If he had a student who wasn’t doing well or one of his children was struggling with something he’d carry that very heavy on his spirit.”

Rowel-Britt called him “an amazing husband and father” to four children. In 2009, the Britts took in three nieces after their mother died. “He didn’t even think twice about it,” Rowel-Britt said. “‘Of course they can live here,’ he said. And we raised them and got them through college.

“He put people first. He led with love. He believed in living in a way that pleased ‘the most high God,’ as he would say.”