Walter Roos 1917 -2014

Albany lost a much loved and admired community member with the recent passing of Walter Roos at age 96.   A longtime resident of Evelyn Avenue, Walter was a retired Kaiser Engineer who had escaped Hitler's Germany as a youth.   He was active with the Kol Hadash Jewish humanist congregation that meets at the Albany Community Center, and was well known around town as a warm and articulate man with a deep interest in other people.     

Walter's enjoyment of life and his positive energy made it a joy to spend time with him, discussing current affairs, history, the human condition, or just sharing stories.  His own experiences bridged an amazing span of history: his eldest brother was killed in World War I just before he was born, yet to the very end of his life he was informed and insightful about the most current events. 

Those of us who had the good fortune to know Walter will miss him terribly.  If you did not have the privilege, I hope you might still take a moment to read his remarkable biography, which his family has made available: 

Walter Roos died suddenly, April 19, 2014, of pneumonia. He was 96.  Born November 13, 1917, in Bruecken, a small village in Germany. He was the last of ten children of Bernhard and Rosa Jakob Roos. His oldest brother was killed in World War I, two months before Walter's birth. He lived a quiet, rural childhood, accompanying his father to sell cattle and helping his mother at her dry goods store. He attended high school/college level classes at Kaiserslautern, where his quiet life was disrupted by Adolph Hitler. In 1936, his stated view that Hitler's social policies would be bad for Germany, led to his expulsion, and a ban on attendance at any German school. That year, sponsored by his oldest brother, a physician, who left Germany years earlier, he immigrated to America.  The rest of his immediate family followed. They lived in Chicago, where he met and married the love of his life, Shirley Carson, with whom he shared more than 60 years.  He studied drafting at the Armour Institute, and his first professional job was with an architectural firm, which designed a number of notable early Chicago skyscrapers. Walter became an HVAC engineer.  On loan for six months to a firm in San Francisco, he and Shirley fell in love with California. They worked first in the Richmond shipyards, and he then worked for Kaiser Engineers, from which he retired after 35 years, at 65. They raised their three children in the hills of El Cerrito. Walter and Shirley travelled across the US with their family.  After retirement they travelled throughout Europe and Scandinavia. Walter and his high school sweetheart, Margaret Tuteur, (who left Germany for England and Canada), met again in 2002.They found that their teenage love had endured over 70 years. They spent two loving and contented years together until her death in 2004. At the time of his death, Walter shared the companionship of Hilda Sheppard, a loving friend. Walter was professional and always elegantly turned out. He was a gentle, wise man whose main interest was people. He made lasting friendships everywhere: among his children's friends, co-workers, neighbors, and people he met on his travels. He was accepting of all, interested and always ready to listen. He found a community, too, in the Jewish Humanist Society, Kol Hadash.  He was informed and intelligent on many topics from the broadest global issues to state and local ballots (he was a Democrat). He was always ready to share and inform others about his experiences in Nazi Germany. Never angry or bitter, his was a cautionary tale. He was a remarkable gentleman with deep understanding of humanity. Walter also brought grace to day-to-day life. The savor of a fresh peach or a bowl of cherries delighted him. Walter was pre-deceased by his beloved siblings: Leo, Julius, Hermine, Claire, Max, Fred, Lore, Albert and Eric. Walter leaves his children, Carol, Leslie and Roger Roos of the Bay Area, many nieces and nephews from the Carson and Roos families and their offspring, and countless friends, each of whom he dearly valued and who loved him. The family is grateful for the loving care of Patricia Lockner Prine, volunteers/friends from JFCS, and to his neighbors and friends.  Donations to Kol Hadash, www.kolhadash.org, or the charity of your choice.