ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
F. Danny Roach, an officer and former chief of the Blacksburg Police Department, died Tuesday. He was 65.
The former Christiansburg resident was living in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at the time of his death. He retired from the U.S. Marshals Service in 1995 where he had served as a courtroom security officer in Roanoke.
During his years in Blacksburg, he served as a volunteer on the Blacksburg Rescue Squad and Fire Department and was a member of the Blacksburg Christian Church. He was also a Navy veteran.
Roach is best known in the New River Valley as a 19-year member of the Blacksburg police who rose through the ranks to chief in 1968. He served until Oct. 31, 1973, when he resigned amid controversy over misconduct in office.
Soon after Roach's resignation, a special grand jury indicted him on six misdemeanor charges described in one charge as "malfeasance, misfeasance, incompetence and gross neglect of duty."
Roach was eventually found guilty of official misconduct for "fixing traffic tickets" and fined $500. During the trial he would not admit to ticket fixing, but instead said, "I was just helping people out by voiding a ticket."
Roach's attorney said in an earlier hearing that his client was "big-hearted, perhaps too big-hearted at times."
Despite the conviction, Roach is remembered here as an extremely well-liked individual who served the community well.
Roach hired Blacksburg Police Chief Bill Brown as a police officer in 1970. "I was the first African-American police officer in the New River Valley," Brown said Thursday. "He gave me an opportunity and I think that speaks quite well of him."
Roach encouraged Brown's effort to be a police officer despite the racial tensions of the day and told him, "How you handle this job and the challenges that face you out there will determine your future. People will not be used to seeing a colored man in uniform," Brown said.
Brown said, "I always had a high regard and respect for him."
Bill Cook was town manager for seven years during Roach's years on the force.
He said the '60s served up four straight years of student riots that rocked Blacksburg.
"He kept a calm, cool head [during the riots] which contributed to keeping things under control," Cook said of Roach's leadership.
Cook said Roach served the town well and "was a good man" who will certainly be missed.
A Montgomery County sheriff's deputy, M.O. Harris, was a longtime friend of Roach's.
He said he worked several years with Roach putting on a boy's camp for 20 12- to 15-year-olds in the Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Radford area, that was sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Police.
"He was low-profile and he did his job well," Harris said.
Narrows Police Chief O.P. Ramsey was hired by Roach to work as a patrolman for the Blacksburg Police Department. He said after Roach left his job at the Police Department and worked at Russell Transfers in Roanoke, his former boss hired him again, this time as a part-time truck driver.
Ramsey said Roach was a "character" who loved people and a good laugh and sometimes went to great lengths to play practical jokes on friends and co-workers.
Ramsey recalled one day at the police station when Roach crawled through part of the ceiling carrying a rubber snake that he eventually dropped into a dispatcher's lap. Initially the stunt evoked screams from the dispatcher, but chuckles all around once the sham was revealed.
Roach's funeral is 2 p.m. today at the John M. Oakey Chapel in Salem.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Roachby CNB