The following information was forwarded by Mikie
Johnson:
Dear Mikie,
I've
been trying to get contact information for Dad's FUHS class, so your message is
timely. Roger McCandless passed away September 28 after a two-year battle with
lung cancer. We are holding a celebration of life in Oceanside on Saturday,
January 16, from noon to 3 p.m. A flier is attached and below with details. I
would appreciate it if you would pass this information along to the FUHS
contact list.
Dad always treasured his memories and friends from his years at
Fullerton High!
If anyone would like to attend his memorial, please RSVP directly
to cfallstead@hotmail.com.
Thank you,
Cheryl Fallstead
Roger McCandless' daughter
Roger McCandless
obituary
On the night of the eclipse of the full moon, Sept. 27,
2015, Roger Lee McCandless took his final bow at the age of 81, as always
departing the stage while the audience wanted more. He leaves a wife of 60
years, Janet Marie McNabb; and daughter, Cheryl McCandless Fallstead, both of
Las Cruces; two sons, Michael and Richard McCandless, of Poway, California; and
six grandchildren.
Roger was a wanderer from his early days, when as a
toddler he'd be delivered home to his parents, James and Laura, by the
Whittier, California, police. That wanderlust - and his career working for
textbook companies - led him to live in many parts of California, then Lenoir
City, Tennessee, and finally Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Roger was a lifelong member of the Society for the
Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (now
the Barbershop Harmony Society). In his 50 years of active membership, he
served as president and/or director of the Whittier, San Jose, Napa, and Oxnard
chapters in California, among other roles, as well as being an active
participant in many quartets. He found no SPEBSQSA chorus or quartet in Las
Cruces, so he joined and soon directed the Young at Heart Chorus and later
formed and coached the Cactus Chords quartet. He is also a founding member of
the Las Cruces Ukes, a community group of ukulele enthusiasts. Probably the
second-most cruel act of the lung cancer that took his life was to steal his
vibrant singing voice.
Another lifelong love was the water. He participated
in and coached swimming and water polo competitively, even being selected as an
alternate to the U.S. Olympic water polo
team in 1956. At his alma mater, San Jose State University, where he earned
bachelor's and master's degrees, he is honored as a member of the sports hall
of fame for water polo. Even his service in the Air Force included the water:
along with being a dental laboratory technician, he served as a lifeguard while
stationed in New York. At that time, he was selected as a member of the Eastern
Collegiate All Stars in water polo and later was a swimming coach for the
Hamilton Air Force Base swim team. Also at this time, he was a member of the
Northern California All-Star Collegiate Water Polo Team. Into his senior years,
he was still participating in indoor and open-water swim competitions in
California and was ranked No. 10 in the world in indoor swimming. He won his
age group in the Oceanside Rough Water Swim three times.
Although he claims to have been a middling student, he
had a love for trivia and word games. In 2003, he found himself on national
television, solving the final puzzle to be a big winner on "Wheel of
Fortune." His widow, Jan, will sorely miss his assistance in completing
their daily crossword puzzle.
As a textbook salesman, he worked closely with
teachers, and was, prior to that, a teacher himself at El Rancho High School in
Whittier Union High School District, California. He advanced to become a sales
coordinator for Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, training teachers in many parts of
the world, such as Kuwait, Panama and Canada.
He counted among his greatest accomplishments the
raising of three wonderful children who have all done well with their lives,
and he was always proud of his grandchildren. Whenever he could, he and his
wife attended the Moon Picnic, a reunion of extended family held each year in
California.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the
Mesilla Valley Hospice or the Barbershop Harmony Society's scholarship program,
Harmony Foundation International.
Published in Las Cruces Sun-News
on Oct. 4, 2015
