ROGER CLIFTON MEAD
Marriages
BEVERLY JEAN (BETTY) RATTELLE - December 26, 1945
lUCILLE ANN REES - June 9, 1968
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel - August 5, 2010
Former Rifl e resident Roger
Mead, 86, died Aug. 3, 2010, at
his Grand Junction home.
Visitation is from 5 to 7 p.m.
Aug. 13 at Martin Mortuary
Chapel. Services will be at
9:30 a.m. Aug. 14 at Messiah Lutheran
Church. Burial will be at
Rose Hill Cemetery in Rifl e.
Survivors include his wife,
Lucille; two sons, Marshall of
Highlands Ranch and Paul of
Las Vegas; one daughter, Karen
Mead of Grand Junction; 10
grandchildren; and 21 greatgrandchildren.
Contributions to Messiah
Lutheran Church and School,
840 N. 11th St., Grand Junction
81501.
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 8 A - August 11, 2010
Roger Clifton Mead, 86, passed
away at his home as he wished on
August 3, 2010, after fighting
pneumonia for several months.
Roger was born in Grand Valley,
CO, on June 17, 1924, to Donn
T h e o d o r e a n d E m m a B i r d
(Reeves) Mead. Roger grew up on
Beaver Creak, near Rifle, attending
the old Beaver Creek School.
He graduated from Rifle High School in 1941. He then went to Ross
Business School in Grand Junction and began his career with
D&RG Railroad as a clerk working in the old Union Depot.
Roger was drafted into the Army Air Corps where he received
training as a radio operator and attended gunnery school. He served
as a gunner in a B-25 patrolling the East Coast during the war. In
August, 1945, he was transferred to California and stationed at Salinas
Army Air Force Base in central California on the way to Japan.
Due to the Japanese surrender he was re-deployed to the East Coast
and spent several months at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts. While there
he met Beverly Jean (Betty) Rattelle at the USO in Springfield, MA,
where he married her on December 26, 1945. He was discharged in
March, 1946, and he and his bride returned to make their home on
Colorado's western slope near his mother and three brothers and
their growing families.
They made their home in Grand Junction, where he resumed
working at D&RG Railroad. They raised their two sons, Marshall
and Paul, involving them in sports and in a wonderfully supportive
and fun loving family.
In 1964, Roger was hired by Texasgulf, Inc. to manage the shipment
of potash from Moab's Cane Creek Mine in Utah. Sadly, his
wife, Betty, died in the hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah on February
3, 1967, from complications of open heart surgery.
On June 9, 1968, Roger married Lucille Ann Rees in Moab at
Grace Lutheran Church. Two years later, their daughter, Karen
Marie was born. In 1971, Roger was transferred to Raleigh, N.C., as
manager of customer service. Roger was a great reader of history
and developed a real appetite for being a tourist, taking his family to
every Civil War battlefield, coastal lighthouse, and every national
historic sight from New Orleans to Maine during the 14 years in
Raleigh. He traveled home to Colorado every summer to see his
family and keep the sense of family unity strong in everyone.
Roger retired to Grand Junction in 1985. He belonged to the Railroad
Historic Society and helped the crew restore the cars at Cross
Orchard. He continued his favorite recreation, golf, because "golf
cures all aches".
Roger was a man of great joy and spread laughter and love to all
who knew him. He leaves us very happy to have had the best dad
anyone could hope for.
Preceding him in death were his parents; his first wife, Betty; three
brothers, Verner, Norman, and Loren, and a sister-in-law, Betty.
He is survived by his second wife, Lucille; his sons, Marshall
(Gae) Mead of Highlands Ranch, CO and Paul (Marcy) Mead of Las
Vegas, NV; his daughter, Karen Marie Mead of Grand Junction,
CO; two sisters-in-law, Mary Jane Mead of Rifle and Elma Mead of
Hot Springs, AR; ten grandchildren with 21 great grandchildren plus
nieces and nephews.
The family would like to thank the staffs at Community Hospital
and Family Health West, Grand Junction's Visiting Angels Homecare
and Hospice & Palliative Care of Western Colorado for the
loving care given to Dad and family members during his final few
months.
A viewing will be held on Friday, August 13, from 5 to 7:00 p.m.
at Martin Mortuary. Funeral services will be held at Lutheran
Church and School of Messiah at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, August 14,
followed by burial in Rose Hill Cemetery, Rifle, CO at 12:30 p.m.
Memorials can be given to the Lutheran Church and School of Messiah,
840 North 11th Street, Grand Junction, CO 81501.
Martin Mortuary, 550 North Ave., Grand Junction, CO 81501, is in
charge of arrangements.
