A nice service for Joe yesterday, particularly the memories shared by his son.
So (as a French horn player, before they just started calling us "horns"
(section)), this gives me an opportunity to respond with musician jokes:
for violins...a hit man has the contract on the conductor and the viola
player...whom does he eliminate first? The conductor...business before
pleasure.
And the one block cartoon...two bass clefs are entering a bar, occupied on
barstools and chairs by treble clefs: Lets get out of here....this place is
nothing but treble.
So that this might qualify for Cobirds, I note that I am writing this as I
watch three bushtits on my suet.
Karl Stecher
Aurora
----------------------------------------
From: "Thomas Heinrich" <teheinr...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2020 4:35 AM
To: "Colorado Birds" <cobirds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [cobirds] Joe Roller sad news
Reading all the wonderful tributes to Joe helps temper the sadness and shock
I'm feeling hearing of his passing. I remember meeting Joe soon after moving
to Colorado in the late 90s. And while I didn't know him as well as many of
you, I am truly grateful to have known him and connected with him on birding
and music. I appreciated his welcoming, kind, supportive nature, his joy and
enthusiasm for birding, and especially his humor. I will really miss reading
his witty posts to Cobirds and crossing paths in the field from time to time.
Thanks to all for sharing your stories and memories of Joe and celebrating his
life and impact on the Colorado birding community. Joe shared this joke (maybe
a bit of a musician's inside joke) in one of our last email exchanges: "The
world is full of cello jokes, but here is my favorite - Q: Did you hear about
the cellist who bragged that he could play 32nd notes?
A: The rest of the orchestra didn't believe him, so he proved it by playing
one." Thomas Heinrich Boulder, CO nyc...@aol.com
On Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 12:40 AM Karl Stecher Jr. <kstec...@idcomm.com>
wrote:
I didn't know Joe was ill in this COVID-confined year, and my chest sank when
I read the news.
I don't know how long we knew each other. Besides the many encounters at
meetings, I recall the Ross' gull we watched together at Cherry Creek SP and
the several encounters scanning Marston from the east side.
We had multiple exchanges of information with many of the humorous comments
one on one and not thought pertinent to all of cobirds.
I was always glad to see him. Not mentioned yet here (I think) is the
extensive knowledge he had of such things as history and literature, besides
medicine and birds.
It was a privilege to have known him.
Karl Stecher
Aurora
----------------------------------------
From: "Robert Raker" <rlra...@comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2020 11:51 PM
To: "Colorado Birds" <cobirds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [cobirds] Joe Roller sad news
So very sad to hear this news. Besides being a great guy to bird with, he was
always so supportive discussing and providing advice regarding my battle with
cancer. Ironic that he ended up passing before me.
Joe and I met in the most unusual of places, in a gastroenterology clinic. It
was time for me to have my colonoscopy and my physician by chance turned out to
be Dr. Roller. After the procedure, while I was recovering from the anesthesia,
he found out from my wife that I was a birder and a photographer. So, in
typical Joe Roller fashion, not ten seconds after I regained consciousness, he
very excitedly insisted in taking me down to his private office to check out
the penguin pictures he had just taken on a trip to Antarctica. We've been
great friends ever since. You will be missed Joe!! Rob Raker Lakewood CO
Jefferson County
On Wednesday, November 25, 2020 at 6:23:28 PM UTC-7 David Waltman wrote:
Larry and others have done a great job of paying tribute to Joe, so I can't
add a lot. My experience was that he was so funny and fun to be around. So
many of us benefited from his sharing of birding knowledge and humor including
many who never met him but read his comments on cobirds. I once asked him
after he retired if he missed working. He said he didn't miss the
responsibility, but he missed his colleagues. You can be sure that they missed
him.
David Waltman
Boulder
On 11/25/2020 3:45 PM Larry Modesitt <larry....@gmail.com> wrote:
Cobirders,
The very sad news is that Joe died last night of cancer just after midnight.
His wife Maryanne said that despite his pain, he was still cracking jokes with
the nurses yesterday morning. "He made me laugh every single day," she said.
Either one of their boys, Dan and Tom, was always able to be with him for the
past month.
I was out running with my dog when Joe corralled us decades ago. That's how I
became one of many people Joe introduced to birding. That led to us birding
together all over Colorado and the world. Joe's love of teaching folks about
birds, almost always with a humorous insight, continued through his illness. He
was a valuable contributor to Denver Field Ornithologists, Bird Conservancy of
the Rockies, Colorado Field Ornithologists, and the medical community. There
has never been anyone like Joe Roller, and he will be missed greatly.
We can believe that last night just after midnight, St. Peter laughed harder
than he had all year.
Larry Modesitt
Arvada
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-- Thomas Heinrich
Boulder, CO
teheinr...@gmail.com
www.pbase.com/birdercellist
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