Ed and I were fellow English-teaching majors in the early 1980s. He was tall and dark with wide shoulders, scintillating blue eyes, freckles, and a quick smile.
He was intense. He told me I was possessed by demons. I haven’t heard from him in a long time, but he came within inches of death in a car accident that took a fellow priest, who was driving, while Ed was praying his Rosary in the passenger seat.
Someday I will write more about Ed, but for now, I’ll say he was an iconic figure on campus with his little black English Shepherd dog named Flower, his hats and coats, his constant cigarettes, his stacks of books. Unlike today’s students, I have not one single picture of him or us from our undergraduate days.
But I have memories, vivid and lasting.
July 2012 – A former Waterloo resident who now preaches in Texas remains hospitalized after a crash last week that killed a colleague.
The Rev. Edward Roche, 52, of Laredo, Texas, was traveling with the Rev. Michael Jordan, 65, to Mexico for mission work. Their vehicle collided with an overturned semi, according to Roche’s sister, Theresa Roche Cooper of Evansdale.
The crash happened July 9 on Interstate 37 near Campbellton.
Jordan was driving and was killed. He was a native of South Bend, Ind.
Roche was taken to a hospital in San Antonio, Texas.
Roche also had serious injuries to his legs, according to his sister.
Roche is a Columbus High School graduate and earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Northern Iowa. He was ordained in Rome. When he returned to the United States, Roche began missionary work for the Roman Catholic Church in Texas through the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity.
Cards can be sent to the Rev. Edward Roche, SOLT, P.O. Box 6464, Laredo, TX 78042.
