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In memory of
Ernest Leo Roller
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Ernest's obituary
After Ernie graduated he got his first job for Lockheed Missiles and Space at Vandenberg Air Force Base. His first two children, Chris and Ramona were born in CA. After 18 months that job closed and he would have to choose to move to another location of Lockheed or get a new job. He chose to work for the Atomic Energy Commision in Grand Junction, Colorado. He realized the job wasn’t right for him and moved six months later after the birth of his third child, Stephanie. He went to work for Control Data in Minneapolis and commuted there for six years from a distance of 50 miles a day. He was blessed with 3 more children in those years. Carina (Cari), Aaron and Alethea. In 1975, he transferred to Redwood Falls with the same company though under different ownership throughout the years.
There he found a home to match all of his goals--a hobby farm where he could farm 15 of the acres. He loved farming with all of his being and working in the field during his free time and working on his machinery and cars made his spirit free. Cathy would haul the grain to the elevator so he wasn’t exposed to the grain dust.
He played a concertina and keyboard and achieved another goal of his to be part of a dance band. He was with Roger Kodet’s band for some years where they played Old Time and Big Band music. He came from a very talented musical family. Ernie’s son, Chris, was to have that ability to play many instruments also. His daughter, Steph, was very interested in the concertina and thought she would like to learn that some day.
Ernie loved his work as an engineer and was brilliant in it and devoted to it. A workaholic could be ascribed to him. He lost vacation days through the years because going to work was vacation enough for him. He did manage to get away sometimes and his family was able to see many of the wonderful areas of the states. He was devoted to provide for his family and continued helping grandchildren right to the end of his life.
He was able to fix just about anything electrical or mechanical around his home. When he retired he played the stock market and spent years trying to help change the income tax to be more fair for everyone. He watched a lot of television which he finally had time for and he enjoyed many genres but his all time favorites were Gunsmoke, Rockford Files, Andy Griffith Show for series and westerns and comedies for movies.
When he wasn’t fixing something in the home, he always needed something in his hands to do. That was fulfilled by some hand games, later an electronic tablet, but mostly by Rubik’s cubes. He started of course when that cube first came out. His daughter Ramona was to later find a 4x4 called Rubik’s Revenge for him. Then we found even more puzzles like that which he usually mastered quickly. Finally we had cubes that had five rows, six rows and seven rows that we got for him. Eventually that wasn’t hard enough so he drilled holes in the squares so that you had to line up the holes as well as the colors.
He is survived by his wife, Cathy, his daughters, Ramona Roller (Atlanta, GA) & Cari (Duane) Panitzke (Winthrop, MN) and son, Aaron (Carol) Roller (Sausalito, CA) and nine grandchildren: Dillon, Nicole, Logan, Hannah, Ellie, Jack, Lillie, Maya & Mariana. Blessed be his memory.
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Created with love by
CARIna PANITZKE.
