Tea Sam Roe

Dr. Tea Sam Roe passed away on December 4, 2024, two months after celebrating his 90th birthday. He was born on October 2, 1934 in Seoul, South Korea to one of Korea’s wealthiest families. At the age of five, he was selected to live and study at a Buddhist Monastery. He was an excellent student and learned the skills of karate and swordsmanship. After his formal training at the monastery, he entered Seoul National University to study pharmacy. He would eventually earn a B.S. degree in 1956, but not before becoming embroiled in the Korean War. During this time, his family were scattered and they lost everything. He joined the Student Volunteer Forces assisting the Eighth Army and eventually became a Major in the Air Force. As an Air Force officer he attended the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama and vowed to someday return to the United States.

Upon returning, he enrolled as a student at Howard College in Montgomery to earn his American Pharmacy degree and become an instructor. He also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Huntington College with a triple major in English, Speech and Philosophy. It was during this period that he met and immediately fell in love with Eldora Whitaker, the daughter of a farmer from Grant, Alabama. Tea Sam was united in holy matrimony with Eldora on October 10, 1965 in Birmingham, Alabama. One year later, they would move into the home where they would live for 56 years. Their union was blessed with two sons, Jeffrey and Jimmy.

In 1967, Tea Sam received a Master of Business Administration degree from Samford University. In 1970, he passed the first North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX). In 1971, he became a tenured Associate Professor at Samford University. Tea Sam received doctorate degrees in Pharmaceutics and Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University in 1981 and was promoted to Professor in 1982. In 1996 Samford University honored Tea Sam with the George Macon Memorial Award for outstanding performance as a teacher, counselor and friend who inspires greatness in students. In 2008, Samford University’s McWhorter School of Pharmacy established the Tea Sam Roe Pharmacy Fund endowed scholarship.

Tea Sam is noted for creating Samford University’s first curriculums in Nursing Home Pharmacy and Herbal Medicine. In the early 1990s, he used his multi-lingual fluency to promote international relations through a clinical training observation exchange course between Samford University and Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan.

Tea Sam served as the Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity Grand Council Deputy for Samford’s Gamma Zeta Chapter for twenty-five years from 1972 to 1997. Under his leadership the chapter became Co-ed in the early 1980’s and grew from a low of four members to become the largest Kappa Psi collegiate chapter in 1992.

Although first and foremost a teacher, Tea Sam also spent three decades serving the citizens of Alabama through his work at the Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, East End Memorial Hospital, UAB Hillman Hospital, Eastside Mental Health Clinic, and the American Cast Iron & Pipe Company Hospital. He also acted as a consultant to the Central Alabama branch of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Tea Sam served on the Board of Directors for the Jefferson County Pharmaceutical Association for nearly a decade in the 1980s.

Tea Sam wrote seven pharmacy textbooks and laboratory manuals and authored numerous peer-reviewed articles. He presented papers at international pharmaceutical conventions and was a member of the Alabama Pharmaceutical Association, Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity, American Pharmaceutical Association (APA), American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).

Tea Sam was the Founder and President of the American Asian Cultural Foundation, an organization he created to promote artistic and cultural relations between Alabama and countries in Asia. He was a benefactor to the Birmingham Museum of Art and served as a consultant to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

During his retirement Tea Sam enjoyed gardening, tinkering around the house, baking with chocolate, bird watching and meeting friends for coffee. His home and yards were a horticulturist dream come true as he and Eldora had spent a lifetime seeking out and cultivating unique and exotic plants. In their front yard Tea Sam and Eldora had fig and Asian persimmon trees that always bore astonishing amounts of fruit, which they loved sharing with friends and family.

Tea Sam was inducted into the Alabama Pharmacy Hall of Fame in 2017.

Tea Sam was preceded in death by his wife, Eldora W. Roe, and his son, Jimmy Steven Roe. He is survived by his son, Jeffrey S. Roe and grandson, Justin S. Roe.

Visitation will be held on December 12, 2024 from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm at Ridout's Southern Heritage Funeral Home and Cemetery, 475 Cahaba Valley Road, Pelham, AL.

Service will be held on December 12, 2024 at 2:00 pm at Ridout's Southern Heritage Funeral Home and Cemetery, 475 Cahaba Valley Road, Pelham, AL. There will be no Graveside Service.