CAZENOVIA — On Jan. 10, 2022, World War II veteran and longtime area resident Wallace Roher will celebrate his 100th birthday.
Roher and his wife, Norma, are the parents of five Cazenovia High School graduates: Susan Delong of Franklinville, NY; Ellen Coblentz, of Fairplay, MD; Wayne Roher, of Columbia, MD; Jean DiMercurio, of Hagerstown, MD; and Karen Rizzo, of Sterling, VA. The couple also has 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
The second eldest of seven children, Roher grew up on a dairy farm near Pratts Hollow, NY.
In 1943, five years after graduating from Stockbridge Valley High School, he enlisted in the army.
“His older brother was killed when he was 20,” said Norma. “He was two years older than Wallace. That left Wallace as the oldest of the children. There were five boys and two girls, in that order. He went into the service because he thought someone should represent his family. He, of course, [was entitled to] deferment because he was on a farm, but he enlisted anyway.”
According to Roher, his father was opposed to his enlisting because he was needed at home to help with the farm business, which was gradually overcoming the debts and hardships created by the Great Depression.
During WWII, Roher served in the China-Burma-India Theater as a Direction Finding Evaluator (DFE), responsible for providing assistance to distressed US aircraft from inside control towers.
While serving at a tower in Kunming, China, Roher worked with “The Flying Tigers,” a group of American volunteer pilots and ground crew who served China in its war against Japan.
As a DFE, Roher assisted US planes that had been either damaged or blown off course flying over “The Hump” — the nickname Allied pilots gave the airlift operation that crossed the Himalayan foothills from India into China.
“For the planes that got into trouble. . . their only resource for help was to call ‘Mayday,’” said Roher. “They might as well have hollered at the wind if nobody was paying any attention to it. . . [The pilots] would call in and the tower people would turn their message over to me and some of the other boys there. We would try to talk to them. You see, a lot of the boys flying those planes were between the ages of 24 and 28, and they would get really excited considering that they had a million-dollar or more aircraft, and some of them had 30 people on board, and they were responsible for whatever it was [they had]. We did not take control of the airplane in any manner. We merely advised them and tried to get them to quiet down, to find out where the plane was, what they were doing, where they were going, what the problem was, and then we’d tell them where the nearest airport was and guide them.”
According to Roher, determining a plane’s location without radar involved using the known locations of multiple radio direction finders — devices for finding the direction, or bearing, to a radio source — to triangulate the plane’s position on a map.
“We could [get] the location of the plane within around a 10-mile radius,” Roher said. “Then we would try to talk to the man, quiet him down, and do the best we could to direct him as to where he should go or what he should do.”
After the war ended and he got out of the service, Roher attended Syracuse University (Class of 1950) on the GI Bill and earned a civil engineering degree.
Following graduation, he worked for three different highway companies with offices in the Rochester-Syracuse area before starting his own civil engineering company, Wallgene Construction Co.
“[His] company started modestly, but it later became one of only three companies in New York State that set granite curbing,” said Rizzo, the youngest of the Roher children. “They later changed over to concrete, using slip-form paving to mold curbs, [median] barriers, and bridge walls.”
According to Norma, the company did jobs all over New York State, including Long Island, and one near Philadelphia. Therefore, she noted, running the business for 25 years required Roher to spend a significant amount of time away from home.
“He’d leave here really early Monday morning and come home Wednesday night, and then he’d leave again early Thursday morning,” she recalled.
Roher and Norma, who is also a Syracuse University graduate, were married in Bouckville in 1951.
This past September, the couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.
The Rohers have lived on Oran Delphi Road in Manlius since 1960.
“Both of my parents still live independently at [the same] address, are still completely coherent and able,” said Rizzo. “My dad has no cartilage left in his knees, so his mobility isn’t great, but he can get around with a cane, walker, or scooter. Mom just turned 90.”
Roher attributed the longevity and quality of his life to hard work.
“He [also] wasn’t much of an imbiber,” added Norma. “And he ate pretty simple foods because that’s the way he grew up on a farm.”
Due to COVID-19 concerns and the possibility of bad weather, the family decided against throwing a party for Roher’s birthday.
“[Instead], we’re asking anyone who knew my dad to send a card for a card shower,” said Rizzo.
