Born 1/7/1930
Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania
Died 1/30/2023
Montpelier, Vermont
Details of services
A memorial service in Montpelier is planned for May. A remote option will be available.
Vincent John Roolf died peacefully in hospice care at CVMC on January 30, 2023, with his daughters by his side, having lived 93 adventure- and memory-filled years and remaining curious, thoughtful, and himself to the end.
Born on January 7, 1930 in Pittsburgh to Joseph C. and Lenora C. Roolf, Vince lived in the rural Western Pennsylvania neighborhood of Turtle Creek until his teen years, when his family relocated to the city.
When his three older brothers went off to WWII, Vince became a Civil Air Patrol plane spotter. At age 15 he began working as an electrician’s apprentice. Later he joined the U.S. Army and served in the Signal Corps (1954-57), stationed in Germany.
A lifelong nature lover, Vince enjoyed exploring the outdoors. He loved to take a peaceful canoe trip on a misty morning to see wildlife. He used his first adult paycheck to buy a wood-and-canvas Penn Yann canoe. He recalled with special fondness a 1954 mountain-climbing trip in the Grand Tetons, and an attempt, thwarted by weather, on the summit of Mount Moran.
In the Army Signal Corps, he returned to his family’s land of origin when he was stationed near Neckarsulm, Germany. On the troop transport ship heading for Europe, he sat on the deck and read “The Edge of the Sea” by conservationist Rachel Carson. The book inspired a deep admiration for Carson that would last the rest of his life.
In the early 1960s, Vince met Joan Heike, a fellow adventurer with the American Youth Hostel. They married in 1964 and bought a modest house with a big yard, apple trees, and a swath of spruce forest. Vince installed a vegetable patch, a fire pit, and a custom-built swing with a seatbelt! A compost pile was a fixture; he regularly tended the household compost himself into his late 80s.
Vince raised his two daughters to be curious and compassionate. Family trips often led to Pittsburgh-area libraries, parks, nature centers, museums, or symphonies. Carnegie Museum and Buhl Planetarium were two favorite destinations. In retirement, he volunteered doing trail work, particularly at Beechwood Farms, Barking Slopes, and along the Rachel Carson Trail.
Vince and his daughters relocated to Montpelier in the mid-aughts. He was not a big socializer, but made friends on his errands in town, always ready with a joke for the librarian, bank teller, or baker.
Vince had an appreciation for all types of ethnic foods. Special family occasions in the 70s and 80s were often marked by a trip to the Jade Garden Chinese restaurant, or Mike & Tony’s Gyro Shop on Pittsburgh’s South Side. In Vermont, he frequented the church bake sales; the ethnic food stalls at the Farmers Market; and enjoyed the local Thai, Indian, Eritrean, and Colombian offerings. Just before his 90th birthday, he tried his first sushi.
As a supporter of Ralph Nader and Bernie Sanders, Vince’s personal politics were decidedly progressive, and he fit right in with Montpelier’s milieu. He could be found at the Occupy protest, the 2017 Women’s March, the Hiroshima Peace Walk, Black Lives Matter, and outside the Post Office in August 2020 — always proudly wearing his U.S. Army Veteran hat and bearing a hand-made sign reading “Dump Trump.”
Vince lived independently in an apartment, walking to get his own groceries up until this last winter (when he switched to delivery) and continuing to do much of his own cooking. In his last years, he enjoyed using a spotting scope to observe wildlife along the Winooski River and continued to do a bit of brush-trimming along the Montpelier Bike Path, carrying clippers in his rollator basket and a pruning saw for which he had rigged a carrier out of an old milk jug.
Vince is predeceased by his parents and his siblings Norman, Rosemary, Ray, Paul, Annamae, and Dorothy. He is survived by his younger sister, Bernadette, and his daughters Becka and Gwenivere.
If you are moved to honor Vince’s memory, donations are requested to the Allegheny Land Trust (www.alleghenylandtrust.org) or you could plant some native wildflowers or a serviceberry tree in your yard to improve the habitat, feed the birds, and provide beauty.
