Muriel Roe

Friday, September 11, 1998

Muriel Roe

Veterinarian, missionary, dies at age 74
Dr. Muriel Osgood Roe, who spent her life rescuing bodies and souls as a veterinarian and missionary, died Thursday, September 10, 1998, in Presbyterian Medical Center, Washington. She was 74 and lived in Washington.

She was born December 14, 1923, in Portland, Maine, a daughter of Harold and Elsie Lunt Osgood.
Dr. Roe was an active member of Church of the Covenant, Washington, where she was an elder, a Sunday school teacher and a women's circle leader.
"She was just a positive, affirming, wonderful woman who did a lot for a lot of people," said the Rev. Bill Meyer, pastor of Church of the Covenant. "Her strength was in strengthening others and showing them what they were capable of."
In 1941, she graduated from Falmouth (Maine) High School and in 1943 graduated from Miss Linington's English School of Equitation. Dr. Roe was a 1949 graduate of Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine, where she received a degree in doctor of veterinary medicine.
From 1949 to 1950 and in 1954, she attended Princeton Theological Seminary, where she studied Christian education.
From 1950 to 1951, she attended the Sorbonne and Mason Alford in Paris, France, where she studied French and tropical veterinary medicine.
Dr. Roe was a missionary in Africa and India for 15 years. In 1950, she was appointed as a missionary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions to Cameroon, West Africa. In Cameroon, she did research and taught Bible and mathematics at Cameroon Christian College.
In 1960, the Mission Board transferred her and her family to Miraj, in Western India. There, she taught Bible and health subjects and did research on the milk water buffalo. She was recognized by the Indian government for her work and for the book she wrote based on her research.
In late 1966, Dr. Roe and her family moved to Washington, where she started her veterinary practice, from which she retired in 1995.
"She was just a fine person, always ready to help anybody," said Dr. E. Wesley Parry II, a veterinarian with Hickory Dickory Doc Animal Hospital who admired her veterinary skill. "She wasn't afraid to get down and tackle anything." In Africa, Dr. Roe worked on elephants.
Dr. Roe occasionally asked Dr. Parry to examine her horses, for which she had a passion.
"My daughter and she would talk about how much they enjoyed being out and free with horses," said Rosella Nolin, a former missionary and longtime friend of Dr. Roe's. "She was a kind, gentle person. It's a big loss not to have her around. "
Nolin and her husband, the Rev. Kenneth Nolin, said Dr. Roe made everyone she encountered feel comfortable.
"She was very much a gracious hostess. As the wife of the executive presbyter, she tried very hard to help make the new pastors in the area welcome in their home, and to feel they were part of the family."
She rarely visited without bringing a gift.
Grace Wilson, who had served as administrative assistant to Dr. Roe's husband, the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel C. Roe, said Dr. Roe was an unpretentious, warm woman.
"She was just a gracious lady, so unassuming. She was very down-to-earth, a very kind person, and quite a horsewoman," said Wilson. "She was a very honest, forthright person. In all the time I knew her, I never saw her upset."
Dr. Roe was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, National Pike Chapter, and the General Society of Mayflower Descendents. She was a member of the Board of Managers of the Washington Cemetery Association for 10 years, and served as its president for two years.
Dr. Roe also was a concert violinist, and played with the Portland, Maine, Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1941 and with the Cornell University Symphony Orchestra from 1944 to 1948.
On July 23, 1949, in West Falmouth, Maine, she married the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel C. Roe, who survives.
Also surviving are three sons, Daniel Roe of Bellefonte, David Roe of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Thomas Roe of Stoughton, Wis.; two daughters, Nancy Kagarise of Columbus, Ohio, and Martha Noftzger of Waynesburg; 12 grandchildren, Jennifer, Daniel and Elisabeth Kagarise, Mary, Anna, Jesse, Eliza, Audra, Jacob and Katie Roe, and Benjamin and Timothy Noftzger; and several nieces and nephews.
Deceased is a sister, Audrey Eales.
THIS OBITUARY WAS WRITTEN BY KAREN MANSFIELD