CLYDE ELWOOD ROACH's Obituary
Clyde Elwood Roach, 96, of Miami, FL passed away peacefully embraced in love, Sunday, May 21, 2017 at home. He was born Feb. 8, 1921 in Miami. Clyde is reunited in Heaven with his parents, Arville and Altie Vineyard Roach; Brothers, Don and Cecil; and Sisters, Ruth “Ted” Kelly, Opal Thurston, and Iva Mae Sapp, and all of his wonderful in-laws. He is survived by his faithful wife of 70 years, Roxie Jo Logan Roach; Children, Stephen Roach (Tina), Roxanne Roach, Marilyn Allen (Keith); Grandchildren, Robert Roach and Stacey Pearce (Lance); Great-Grandchildren, Juliana, Chloe, Annalise and Logan.
Clyde grew up poor in Miami the youngest of six children. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, participating in school sports and working various jobs as a young man in South Florida from a paper route, a lunch stand, and delivery driver for Biscayne Chemical Company before graduating high school, to construction. Shortly after graduating from Miami Edison High School, in 1940 he was hired by Eastern Airlines to play on their baseball team, clean the floors of airplanes and stock related supplies. Clyde married Roxie Jo Logan, of Plains, GA in 1947 and raised his family in the two homes he built with the help of his father, Arville, a respected construction manager during the 20’s in Miami.
Clyde enlisted in the Army Air Corp in 1942. During his service to our country he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross Medal for saving the lives of most of his crew members when his aircraft was taken down in the English Channel during the Normandy invasion. His distinguished flying career started with Troop Carrier Command dropping Airborne troops from a C-47 over Normandy throughout Europe to an emergency crash belly landing in a Boeing 727 at Carswell Air Force Base in New Mexico culminating an otherwise safe, successful and rewarding commercial career throughout the US and Caribbean. He retired from Eastern Airlines in 1980. After retirement, he worked as a consultant and expert witness in different areas of the airline industry.
Other than Clyde’s love for his family, friends and the outdoors, his favorite hobbies were hunting in the Everglades, fishing in Biscayne Bay, Islamorada and Flamingo, and greyhound racing and writing. He loved, studied, wrote about, handicapped and even raised greyhounds, pheasant and quail during his lifetime. An unusual hobby to match his sense of humor was keeping bass in the swimming pool so he and the neighborhood kids could fish anytime. Clyde wrote a number of books on his airline industry experiences, South Florida, Dog Race Handicapping, some fiction and history, and some biographical works. Some of his titles were Confessions of an Airline Pilot, Hedgehopping Aviation, Terrorism Turkey Point, Hosea, Hachee, and Handicapping for Fun and Profit. He was an almost regular contributor to the editorial section of the Miami Herald. He wrote in and was published countless times, providing distinct, humorous at times and an often pragmatic take on current world and local events. His observations were a strong dose of reality. He called out some of the most flagrant polarizing and questionable human behavior by pointing out the obvious in a kind and gentle way that was always thought provoking.
Clyde lived life on his own terms right up to the end. His mind was still sharp and he knew after 96 years that it was time to go, and he did. He will be missed and always remembered by those whose lives he touched.
No services will be held. Contributions in his memory may be made to Vitas Hospice
http://vitascommunityconnection.org/community-connection/donate
or a Florida Greyhound Rescue of your choice
http://www.greyhoundpetsfl.org/
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