Dorothy Margaret Roach
October 7, 1923 - June 14, 2025
Obituary
Dorothy Margaret ROACH (née Wylie) (1923 – 2025), our beloved mother, “Mum”, passed away quietly in her sleep in the early hours of June 14th, 2025, at the age of 101 years, eight months, and eight days, at her residence in the City of Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. Mum was predeceased by her husband Stewart of 81 years. She is survived by her sister, Mrs. Audrey D. Stowell of the City of Richmond, British Columbia, her five children (David, Lynda, Jonathan, Brian, and Julie), her niece (Leslie), her three grandsons (Matthew, Austin, and Stewart), five grand-daughters (Heather, Lianne, Kristine, Emmalee, and Megan), and four great-grandsons (Rylan, Nathan, Jacob, and Sean).
Dorothy was born to Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Wylie (Dorothy Ellen), originally of Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, during the month of October, 1923, in St. Paul’s Hospital, City of Vancouver, British Columbia. Her parents, Archie Wylie (1890 – 1976) and Dorothy Ellen Day (1890 – 1976), emigrated separately from the United Kingdom, Archie in 1911, and Dorothy Ellen in 1915. Disembarking in Montreal, Quebec, Archie found his way to the City of Vancouver, British Columbia and established himself there in trade. Dorothy Ellen arrived at Montreal and made her way to the City of Vancouver to join Archie there. They married on Christmas Day, 1915, in Vancouver, and made a household, Archie in the bakery business and Dorothy Ellen in the woolens trade that she had been employed in in England. Their first daughter, Audrey Doreen, was born in 1919. Their second daughter Dorothy Margaret followed a little more than four years later, in 1923. Both daughters were brought up in a middle-class English household within a western Canadian environment; both matriculated from high school and found employment in the City at a time when the Depression was slowly being replaced by a modest economic recovery on the eve of the Second World War.
Both daughters were popular and attracted male companions as well as life-long female friendships that persisted into their retirement years. The Wylie family enjoyed taking holidays at Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver, and on Bowen Island in Howe Sound where the family would take a summer cottage for a couple of weeks of holidaying beyond the reaches of the City. It was on one such summer vacation that Dorothy met her future husband and life-long companion, Stewart W. Roach. Love at first-sight it may not have been, but love and affection bloomed and took root during that summer, and yet, Dorothy still entertained many suitors and but for campaign undertaken by Stewart, she might have married another. The engagement agreed by the young couple and their parents, Dorothy Margaret Wylie and Lieutenant Stewart W. Roach were wed on October 23rd, 1943, in a formal ceremony attended by family and friends at Ryerson United Church, Kerrisdale, Vancouver, British Columbia. After a brief honeymoon, the newly weds embarked for Kingston, Ontario, to join other newly wed officers and brides to commence training in preparation for joining the war effort in Europe.
During the period her husband was overseas with the First Canadian Army in England, and subsequent to June 6th, 1944, then in Northern Europe, Dorothy worked in the Royal Bank of Canada in the City of Vancouver, rising to clerk of the vault, and other responsibilities. Following demobilization, Stewart returned to Vancouver, and the young couple established a household, first in Kitsilano, Vancouver, and then, in 1949, in their own house on Mardale Road in new subdivision within the District of North Vancouver. During 1951, their first child, a son, arrived. And, a little under two years later, a daughter arrived. Then a little over two years later, a second son arrived, followed by a third son a little under two years later. The young family moved to West Vancouver, British Columbia, from North Vancouver, in 1954, and the raising of three sons and one daughter commenced in earnest with school days, and team sports on weekends, two soccer teams started, and two baseball teams reorganized, membership in Brownies, and summer vacations camping and visiting relatives in the Okanagan region of British Columbia, cousins and aunts and uncles, second cousins and great aunts and uncles.
In the summer of 1966, a second daughter arrived to a great delight of all, and our parents felt that they were starting on raising their second family. Shortly afterward, Edward J. Dollinger, became a boarder and then a valued friend and colleague, and finally a member of the extended family. Eddy predeceased both Dorothy and Stewart, but not before marrying Monique and raising a daughter and a son to adulthood. Eddy was like an older brother, and mentor while he lived with the family.
Several business trips to Europe, Africa, and South-east Asia for technical conferences and short-term consulting assignments on leave from the Fisheries Research Board, Department of Fisheries in Vancouver, and a year with FAO in El Salvador, in 1971, as a consultant with UNDP working on the preservation of fish catches at sea and shore plant processing, introduced the family to foreign cultures and foreign languages followed. A brief tour of the Republic of Indonesia in 1972 rounded out the foreign travel.
In 1979, Dorothy and Stewart and their youngest daughter Julie, emigrated to the United States when Stewart joined the shipbuilding and fishing equipment multinational MARCO in the City of Seattle. There followed several years of work developing shipboard systems for the preservation of fish catches at sea and the associated fish-handling equipment needed to transfer the preserved fish from seiners and mid-water trawlers to packers and shore plants, based on inventions that Stewart patented and assigned to MARCO. The transfer to Seattle was encouraged by Mr. and Mrs. Harold Daubenspeck of Seattle; Harold and Rita Daubenspeck and their family remained close family friends of Stewart and Dorothy until the end.
From the City of Seattle, Dorothy and Stewart moved to the retirement community of Providence Point, City of Issaquah, where they enjoyed meeting new friends and becoming involved in the day-to-day activities of the Garden Club and the HOA sub-committee overseeing maintenance of the Garden Village common property well into their 90s. As time went on, it became apparent to Dorothy and Stewart that moving into an assisted living facility was the next step, and they joined University House, Issaquah, shortly afterwards. Celebrating Stewart’s century at the start of 2020, was the last major family get-together at Providence Point.
Their final days were spent at an Adult-Family Home in the Magnolia neighbourhood, City of Seattle. The family thanks the medical staff at Swedish Hospital, Issaquah, and Ballard (Seattle) for the care and attention our parents received during their final days. The family is especially appreciative of the care arranged by Hospice Services of Washington, and the assistance and kind consideration of the staff of the Adult-Family Home in Magnolia, Seattle, delivered to Dorothy and Stewart in their last months.
