Roy Titus; Philanthropist, Executive

Roy Valentine Titus, 79, a philanthropist and former chairman of the cosmetics company founded by his mother, Helena Rubinstein. Titus was the elder of Mrs. Rubinstein’s two sons by her first husband and moved with his family to the United States in 1914. After earning degrees from Oxford and the Harvard School of Business Administration, he joined a British affiliate of the cosmetics company and served as an executive of the business in New York until he retired in 1974. Titus served as chairman of the Helena Rubinstein Foundation, on the board of the Children’s Blood Foundation and the board of governors of the Tel Aviv Museum, and was a trustee of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union-Industry Pension Fund. A film buff, Titus in 1976 gave $1 million to the Museum of Modern Art, which was used in part to renovate its film auditorium. In New York on Sunday of the complications of diabetes.