Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 5, 1995 TAG: 9508070041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRTER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The first time Julie McGuire laid her eyes on Jon Roberts, 25 years ago, she knew she would marry him.
"He loved kids. I loved kids," she said. "I loved babies. He loved teen-agers."
It was that love that led Jon Roberts to become a father of four and a coach and teacher at Lord Botetourt High School. For 15 years, he taught government and helped coach baseball, basketball and football.
And when he died Wednesday from lung cancer, his fellow coaches were there with a couple of dozen other family members and friends, who stood around his bed and prayed.
Jon Roberts, 48, left an imprint on many people's lives.
The first time his wife saw him, he was helping coach sandlot football in Salem.
At Lord Botetourt, he had a reputation for enthusiasm. Even after he was diagnosed with cancer, he could be seen fidgeting on the sidelines as the game went on without him.
Although he taught only a couple of weeks this past year, he occasionally visited the school.
"Students and teachers would flock around him," said Barbara Gray, the school's assistant principal. "He's a person that no one would say anything bad about."
Roberts prided himself on loving his country and loving the students he taught and coached. When military duty interrupted his college education, he didn't complain, Julie Roberts said. He spent four years in the Coast Guard.
He tried to instill those value in his students.
"I think he was trying to make sure they would become responsible citizens," Gray said.
"His kids were great kids," Julie Roberts said. "He was dedicated to them."
That's why he wasn't about to let a nagging sore throat slow him down in the spring of 1994 when there were seniors to graduate and baseball championships to win. The school's baseball team did, in fact, win the Blue Ridge District Championship - for the first time - that spring.
"He'd been sick the whole winter before," his wife said. "He wouldn't go to the doctor."
Last fall he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was a long-time smoker, but had quit in 1990.
In the following months, his health gave out and his stamina waned.
"He couldn't walk to the mailbox," Julie Roberts said. "He couldn't much walk across the room."
With his passing, Gray reflected on the man she had known.
"He was always involved," she said. "We've not only lost a good teacher. I've lost a personal friend."
by CNB