Roger McCandless

On the night of the eclipse of the full moon, Sept. 27, 2015, Roger Lee McCandless took his final bow at the age of 81, as always departing the stage while the audience wanted more. He leaves a wife of 60 years, Janet Marie McNabb; and daughter, Cheryl McCandless Fallstead, both of Las Cruces; two sons, Michael and Richard McCandless, of Poway, California; and six grandchildren.

Roger was a wanderer from his early days, when as a toddler he'd be delivered home to his parents, James and Laura, by the Whittier, California, police. That wanderlust - and his career working for textbook companies - led him to live in many parts of California, then Lenoir City, Tennessee, and finally Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Roger was a lifelong member of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (now the Barbershop Harmony Society). In his 50 years of active membership, he served as president and/or director of the Whittier, San Jose, Napa, and Oxnard chapters in California, among other roles, as well as being an active participant in many quartets. He found no SPEBSQSA chorus or quartet in Las Cruces, so he joined and soon directed the Young at Heart Chorus and later formed and coached the Cactus Chords quartet. He is also a founding member of the Las Cruces Ukes, a community group of ukulele enthusiasts. Probably the second-most cruel act of the lung cancer that took his life was to steal his vibrant singing voice.

Another lifelong love was the water. He participated in and coached swimming and water polo competitively, even being selected as an alternate to the U.S. Olympic water polo team in 1956. At his alma mater, San Jose State University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees, he is honored as a member of the sports hall of fame for water polo. Even his service in the Air Force included the water: along with being a dental laboratory technician, he served as a lifeguard while stationed in New York. At that time, he was selected as a member of the Eastern Collegiate All Stars in water polo and later was a swimming coach for the Hamilton Air Force Base swim team. Also at this time, he was a member of the Northern California All-Star Collegiate Water Polo Team. Into his senior years, he was still participating in indoor and open-water swim competitions in California and was ranked No. 10 in the world in indoor swimming. He won his age group in the Oceanside Rough Water Swim three times.

Although he claims to have been a middling student, he had a love for trivia and word games. In 2003, he found himself on national television, solving the final puzzle to be a big winner on "Wheel of Fortune." His widow, Jan, will sorely miss his assistance in completing their daily crossword puzzle.

As a textbook salesman, he worked closely with teachers, and was, prior to that, a teacher himself at El Rancho High School in Whittier Union High School District, California. He advanced to become a sales coordinator for Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, training teachers in many parts of the world, such as Kuwait, Panama and Canada.

He counted among his greatest accomplishments the raising of three wonderful children who have all done well with their lives, and he was always proud of his grandchildren. Whenever he could, he and his wife attended the Moon Picnic, a reunion of extended family held each year in California.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mesilla Valley Hospice or the Barbershop Harmony Society's scholarship program, Harmony Foundation International.