ROLLER, Norman Hill

The Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, AZ January 20, 1999, p. 18 Norman Hill Roller of Sun City West passed away at his home in Sun City West on January 14 at 11:45 a.m. after a long illness of cancer. He was 72. Mr. Roller was born December 2, 1926 in Walters, Oklahoma. Mr. Roller graduated from Classen High School in Oklahoma City in June of 1944. He then joined the U.S. Navy and served on the USS Norton Sound in the Pacific until the end of World War II. Upon returning, he attended the University of Oklahoma with his brothers Lenton D. Roller and the late George L. Roller. They pledged the PKA Fraternity together with Bill Wimbish of Arizona. In 1949, he received his R.O.T.C. Commission and was accepted for flight training school at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated August 5, 1950 in B-25 Aircraft at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma and upon graduation took C-54 training at Great Falls, Montana and was then assigned to fly air evacuation from Haneda Air Force Base in Japan. In November 1950, he began evacuating the wounded from K-29 and K-27 in Korea, flew evacuation flights for 33 months as well as embassy flights from Japan to Saudi Arabia. He earned his captain’s bars at age 26. Upon his return to the San Francisco, he met his wife Elaine, and they were married in June of 1953. He was then transferred to the Atlantic Division of M.A.T.S. at Westover Air Force Base and became a lifelong friend of Marguerite and Paul Patch, Major General retired, of Arizona. In 1954, he resigned from the Air Force to establish a cattle and walnut ranch in California. Norman is survived by this devoted wife of 45 years, Elaine; son Alfred S. Roller; and daughter Andrea S. Taydus; elder brother Lenton D. Roller, Lt. Gov. Rtd. U.S. Air Force, and his wife Norma Jean of Norman, Oklahoma; and sisters June Logan of California and Gladys Morrow and Burneita Harms of Oklahoma. He also leaves dear Oregon friends Nancy and Raymond Bean, Jr. Norman and Elaine were members of the St. Peter the Fisherman Lutheran Church of Lincoln City, Oregon. Norman also was a member of the John Birch Society. He loved the West and lived in California, Texas, Oregon and six years in Sun City West. Friends and family will attend a private graveside military service with Luke Air Force Honor Guard at Wickenburg Memorial Cemetery at 11 a.m. Sunday, January 24, with visitation being held at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Wickenburg Funeral Home, 187 N. Adams St. in Wickenburg. Chaplain (Col) Michael F. West will officiate. Serving God, family and the Republic under the Constitution was the theme of his life. Norman was a cancer research patient in 1963 at Stanford University Hospital under the late Dr. Kaplan, who discovered a cure for Hodgekins Disease, cancer of the lymph system. The family suggests a memorial donation instead of flowers be made to the Sun Health Foundation/Hospice Care Services, P. O. Box 2015, Sun City, AZ 85372. Brown’s Wickenburg Funeral Home handled all the arrangements.