Jack W. Roach 1937-2008

ROACH, BONAR

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 4/8/2008 at 19:48:59

Jack W. Roach

Jack Wesley Roach, 70, of Dubuque, died Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008, at Oak Park Place.

Services will be at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at St. Peters Lutheran Church, where friends may call after 9:30 a.m. The Egelhof, Siegert and Casper Westview Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Jack was born on July 18, 1937, in Henry County. From boyhood, Jack had both a committed love for God and his family and an independent, vagabond nature. He would explore the Iowa countryside he loved all his life, jumping trains and camping in fields. At home again, he cared for his little brother, Larry, when his beloved father, Arthur Roach, was working.

Jack himself began working at a young age, first in fields and later in restaurants, the drive-up kind so quintessentially American and of that time. After finishing high school in 1955, he joined the Navy. With the Navy, he traveled the coasts of South and Central America, Mexico and Hawaii testing hydrogen bombs. He also traveled the west coast of this country, of which he was forever proud and happy to return. After the Navy, Jack began working in the banking industry, moving throughout the Midwest.

He loved banking, though not as much as he loved the four children his two marriages produced. Jack always was a proud father. He always anticipated his children's visits, and though he dreamed since he was a little boy of finding a place with stark white buildings and a vista of eternal blue sea, he stayed mostly in Iowa where his children and grandchildren would always continue to come to see him.

But now, may he rest in peace, those visits will be when his spirit visits from a heavenly place that is most surely like the most beautiful stark white farm house, overlooking Iowa-green rolling hills, and an eternal blue sea.

Surviving are his brother, Larry (Janie) Roach, of Amarillo, Texas; his children, John (Vanessa) Roach, of San Antonio; Laura (Doug) Bonar, of Farmington, Minn.; Ryan (Trisha) Roach, of Dubuque; Jamie (Bryan Montemarano) Roach, of Houston; he will also be missed by others he loved deeply, his grandchildren, Natalie, Chance, Ian Bonar and his soon-to-arrive grandson, Elijah Roach; his nieces and nephews; and his cousins in southeastern Iowa.

The family would like to thank the staff of the memory unit at Oak Park and Hospice of Dubuque for their kindness in Jack's care.

Copyright (c) Woodward Communications, Inc. 2008, All Rights Reserved. Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Friday, February 22, 2008