Paul Pious Roth

Paul was born Sept 3, 1921 at the family home on Queen Street, in Preston Ontario to Pierce and Edith Roth. Their family later welcomed his little sister Gloria. He attended elementary and High School at the Catholic School. Following graduation he attended the Preston Continuation School for 2 years taking a commercial course and graduated with distinction.

After High School he worked in construction and for the railway. He also played juvenile hockey and at 17 was approached by the Detroit Red Wings to try out for their team. This dream was not to be fulfilled however, as the Second World War broke out on September 3, 1939 on his 18th birthday. He volunteered to join the military and served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Quebec and was then stationed in Great Britain through 1946 as an air frame mechanic.

Before his overseas assignment, Paul met Jean Thaler while roller skating at the local Kitchener rink. Jean began witnessing to him about her faith in Jesus Christ and when he was 21 he accepted Christ as his Saviour with Reverend Stuart Boehmer. Jean and Paul were married while he was on leave on August 2, 1943, in Toronto. They began a life long membership with Benton Street Baptist Church. Their first son, David, was born October 13, 1944.

A year after the end of the war, Paul returned to Canada and the young family lived with Jean’s parents, on Krug Street in Kitchener. Paul had 13 jobs during those first several months after his military service. His 14th job was with the Bell Telephone Company, which lasted for the next 34 years. Paul missed only one half day of work in all those years due to sickness. He was never once late for work. Paul demonstrated a work ethic that he passed on to his two sons - he was a man who faithfully provided for his family.

His second son, Don who was supposed to be a Susan, was born on August 18, 1948 in the K.W. Hospital in Kitchener. Paul and his Father, Pierce, built their first house in Centre Ville, in the suburbs of Kitchener, where they lived from 1951 through 1953.

Looking for a warmer climate, Paul moved his young family to Santa Anna California in 1954, where he worked for the Fuller Brush Company and became “top salesman.” But in 1955 they moved back to Kitchener due to his wife’s failing health. They bought a house on Samuel Street. In 1964 Paul contracted the building of a new house on Cornell Avenue in the south end of Kitchener.

In 1965 the family experienced a life changing event when Don was in a life threatening motorcycle accident. With answered prayer and the support of his parents, family and friends as well as the church family, Don recovered. Through the influence of Dixie Dean, Rev. Stuart Boehmer and others, both Donald and David were called to serve in full time Christian ministry, David with H.C.J.B Missionary Radio in Quito Ecuador and then Global Outreach Mission. Don went into Pastoral ministry, serving churches in Ontario and British Columbia.

Paul took early retirement from Bell Telephone in 1978, at 57 years of age, sold his house and they started living in Florida for half the year. They lived in an R.V trailer in Florida from October to April and on Green Valley Drive, in Kitchener for the rest of the year. They did this for more than 20 years. He also became an avid golfer six days a week and then cut back to 5 days a week. He registered two “hole in ones” at the Doon Valley Golf course and regularly shot in the 70’s - 80’s. After experiencing his second heart attack on the golf course, he decided he better stop golfing or he might not survive another heart attack. The way he told it, “three strikes and you are out”. Little did any of us know that he would go on to survive 5 heart attacks before he would have a fatal one at age 92.

David and Margaret were married in 1972 in Ecuador and Paul & Jean flew to South America for the wedding. Paul and Jean were delighted when they became grandparents to David and Margaret’s three girls, Christine, Brenda and Susan, and to Don and Connie’s children, Jonathan and Carolyn. When the grandchildren were young, Paul would enjoy lying on the couch and letting each of his five grandkids massage his bald head, telling them it would help his hair to grow. The kids enjoyed it, but somehow new hair never happened.

Paul & Jean took several more trips to visit Dave & Marg and to see their Granddaughters at their home far away. Later they also took trips to visit Don & Connie and kids in Dallas, Texas and then later in Langley, BC. The first trip to BC was the first time Paul had been west of Ontario in Canada. He never went overseas again after his wartime service. As they aged, Paul finally sold their trailer in Florida. Health insurance was getting too prohibitive to go for extended periods. Paul really missed his Florida winters and his trips to the ‘Old Country Buffet’.

Paul began a very difficult transition when Jean, his dear wife of 58 years, died on November 27, 2001. He started volunteering at “Out of the Cold”, a ministry to homeless people at his church in Kitchener.

He lost his eldest son David to cancer on Jan 13, 2006. He was predeased by his parents Pierce Roth who died suddenly at 52 years of age of heart issues and his Mother Edith Huber Roth who died at age 75. Paul is survived by his son Don and daughters-in-law Connie and Margaret, 5 Grandchildren, 9 Great Grandchildren, and his only sibling, his sister Gloria of Kitchener, Ontario.

Paul met Isabel Beckner after a church service at Benton Street Baptist Church in 2006 and they began a friendship. They had known each other’s families more than 50 years before. He was 85 when he married Isabel in Georgetown Baptist Church on January 20, 2007. He sold his townhouse in Kitchener and moved to Isabel’s condominium apartment in Brampton. He appreciated his new family and step children and often said how they had made him feel so welcome into their family.

During the last several years Paul enjoyed seeing and hearing about his Grand children and his Great Grandchildren:

Christine Roth of Airdrie, Alberta who married Mike Snyder and their children – Allie and Joshua.

Brenda Roth of Hillsburgh, Ontario who married Jay Jasper and their children Kaytlyn and Jaycob.

Susan Roth of Kitchener, Ontario who married Craig Fyfe and their children – Anna and Ethan.

Jonathan Roth of Surrey, BC who married Julia Hildebrand and their children – Daniel, Jason and Noah.

Carolyn Roth of Langley who married Rick Peeler and their baby in heaven.

After being married for four years, Isabel died on March 22, 2011. Paul had been telling everyone except Don & Connie that if he lost Isabel he was going to move to the west coast. He moved to Abbotsford B.C. to be closer to Don. He moved into an apartment at Hallmark On The Park, an assisted living residence where he lived for two and a half years. As he was someone who liked to be in charge and organize things, he enjoyed all the activities and occasions to socialize and take bus trips. He made himself the resident photographer and enjoyed taking and printing photos of residents and events at Hallmark. He often said his daughter-in-law had done well in getting him into the best place in the city. He enjoyed a special friendship with his friends Sue and Daisy.

Paul was an incredibly physically strong man and never gave in to weakness and was not able to understand that his own body was no longer capable of doing all that he wanted it to. As another resident at Hallmark said to Don the day after Paul’s death, “He was a ‘real character’ and he will be sorely missed”. We who knew and loved him know that to be very true. We are thankful he is now enjoying his heavenly home and no doubt meeting family and friends who had gone on before.

Paul will be missed by all those who loved him – he was a “doodle” and the mold was definitely thrown out after God made him.