Francis B. Roach

Francis B. Roach Canton Francis B. Roach,86, WWII and Korea Veteran died Sunday, December 9 surrounded by children and grandchildren at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. Mr. Roach grew up in Boston and raised his family in Canton. Born the second of six children, in 1921, Roach grew up during the Great Depression as somewhat of a street kid, and the tall, handsome but undistinguished teenaged newspaper bundler soon joined what Tom Brokaw has termed The Greatest Generation any society has ever produced. Roach was inducted into the Army in 1942, and served with distinction in the European theater until the war ended in 1945. He fought for the Third Infantry Division, 7th Regimental Command. Specially trained as a gas specialist, Roach achieved the rank of corporal, and prepared Allied troops in England for the D-Day invasion at Normandy Beach. Roach landed at Normandy from an LST and participated in hedgerow fighting there in the ensuing weeks. Roachs regiment fought across northern France into Belgium, where the Americans held out against insurmountable odds when the German army made its last major counteroffensive, into the Ardennes Forest. Known as the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's last effort to stop the Allied advances from the west was ultimately reversed there, in Bastone. Roach was part of General Pattons army that relieved the surrounded Allied troops in Bastone. When the tide finally turned, the 7th Regiment marched across Belgium to the gates of the infamous Dachau death camp, helping to liberate survivors there. Mr. Roach was honorably discharged and returned to Boston after the war. He enjoyed the comraderie of victorious veterans and the adoration of Americans, including Mary Ciccolo, with whom he shared strong affection. But now another war was erupting, in Korea. Mary proposed marriage to Francis, and the two were wed a week before Roachs reenlistment took him to that frozen, distant peninsula. Roach was deployed among early troops in the same Third Infantry Division for which he had fought in WWII. Through dreadful cold he survived the terrible battle of Chosin Reservoir, where he held position as Chinese troops overran United Nations forces. Roach was one of the final men evacuated from the beaches of North Korea on Christmas Day 1951. Shortly after Korea, Mr. Roach was the sole survivor when a scaffolding collapsed in a shipyard accident that shattered his hip and left him 100% disabled. Still, Francis and Mary Roach raised five children in Canton: Paulette Kolba of Fountain Valley CA, Pamela Ahern of Braintree, Frank Roach Rider of Raleigh NC, Kathleen L. Roach of Hyannis, and the late Stephen A from Norwood. Mary worked as a secretary or clerk while Francis managed the household. Francis Roach focused on his family after WWII and Korea, and joined Mary in teaching their children to be prompt, polite, thorough and dependable, and modeled persistence and humor through decades of physical pain. They taught their children compassion, faith, and the resiliency of family they exemplified. The five Roach children have produced 14 grandchildren, and even a great grandson, who are now flourishing in greater Boston, California, Puerto Rico and North Carolina. Mary died in 2002, and Francis will be buried with military honors at her side. Francis is also survived by sister Elizabeth Devin of Dorchester, brothers Earl Roach & George Roach of Huntington Beach CA, and sister Louise Masterson of Boston. Visiting hours at the Dockray & Thomas Funeral Home 455 Washington St. Canton Wednesday (5-8 pm). Relatives and friends invited to attend a funeral service at the funeral home Thursday morning at 10:30, followed by a burial at St. Marys Cemetery in Canton at 11:15 AM. He was a member of the American Legion Post #24 in Canton, VFW Post #2452 in Norwood, DAV Chapter # 39 in Randolph, the 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment Assn, Combat Infantrymans Brotherhood, Korean War Veterans Assn, Inc., and the U.S. Army Chosin Few. Donations may be made in Mr. Roachs name to the Childrens Hospital, 300 Longwood Ave., Boston MA 02115.