Clyde "Bud" Roark

Clyde "Bud" Roark died peacefully at his home in Newport, OR, July 27, 2014. He was born in Stevensville, MT, to Clive S. and Marjorie Roark. He graduated from Missoula County High School in 1943 and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. During World War II he served as the bombardier in an A-26C Invader bomber. In 1945, while stationed in South Carolina, he married his high school sweetheart, Mary Schak. Bud graduated Phi Kappa Phi from Montana State University in 1949 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (E.E.) and joined IBM as a Customer Engineer in California. His IBM career spanned 30 years: In 1959, he became Manager of Magnetic Tape Development. In 1962, while in Poughkeepsie, NY, he completed his M.S. in E. E. from Syracuse University. Bud was a United States representative at the international tape standards conference in Copenhagen in 1963, and in 1965 he helped negotiate the ground-breaking IBM - Sony partnership to develop computer magnetic tape. Bud became Operations Manager, Information Records Division (IRD), Boulder, CO, in 1968. And in 1969 he was promoted to Director of Engineering for IRD in Princeton, NJ. He retired in July 1979. In retirement Bud and Mary traveled the West in their AirStream fishing and exploring, from the southern end of the Baja peninsula to Alaska, and in 1995 they settled in Newport. Bud was active in church, delivered Meals on Wheels, won many bridge games at the Senior Center, became an Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife certified fly fishing instructor, crafted fine woodworking pieces in his workshop, gardened and was active in the Central Coast Fly Fishers and Long View Hills Fly Fishing Club. Bud is survived by his wife, Mary; son, R. Chris Roark and fiancée, Elizabeth Perreault, Boulder, CO; daughter, Marilynn Sadowski and husband, Michael, Tucson, AZ; grandsons, Dan Sadowski and long-time partner, Beth Stanton, and Adam Sadowski and wife, Marcy. Memorial services are scheduled at 4 p.m., August 23rd, All Nations Lutheran Church, Newport, OR, followed by a reception at 5 p.m. at the Pacific Maritime & Heritage Center. Friends of the family are invited to join in a celebration of his life. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made in Bud's name to All Nations Lutheran Church, (358 NE 12th St., Newport, OR 97365) or Central Coast Fly Fishers (PO Box 1121 Waldport, OR 97394).