Chandler, John Roscoe

The Albuquerque Tribune
Albuquerque, New Mexico
http://www.abqtrib.com/
April 13, 2007

Chandler loved family, hunting

John Roscoe Chandler enjoyed a long and successful career in dentistry, but one of his greatest accomplishments was being a father, his children say.

"He was in the generation that went through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. It was a very stoic and proud generation. Taking care of his family was a duty. He lived his life that way," said Chandler's son Larry.

Roscoe Chandler died of an aneurysm at 84 on Sunday.

The Rio Rancho resident was born in 1922 in Great Bend, Kan., and was raised in Norman, Okla.

He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in Norman after high school and went on to study at the Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas, graduating in 1946.

At Baylor, he met his future wife, Billie Marie Stewart, on a blind date.

Melanie Mize, Chandler's daughter, said her mother's friend dragged her mother along on a double date. Her mother didn't want to go.

"She was in the shower. She jumped out and her hair was wet. Then went she out and ended up in love," Mize said.

Chandler and his wife were married for 61 years.

Mize said after her father graduated from Baylor, he was drafted into the Army and received a commission in the U.S. Army Dental Corps.

He was assigned to an outpost in Alaska where he served not only as a dentist but also as the only medical officer and the emergency physician.

At the outpost he was most known for his reconstructive work with children and soldiers who needed medical work on their faces, mouths and jaws, Mize said.

"He was proud of something he did for a baby with a cleft palate who couldn't swallow," she said. "He let these people have as normal a life as possible."

He was also a prosthodontist, a dentist who makes bridges or dentures.

"When he was in the Army he was one of the best prosthodontists," Mize said. "A lot of the old dentists did their own lab work. He made whatever had to go in the mouth," she said.

In 1963 he became chief of the Department of Dentistry and chairman of the Dental Education committee at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu.

After 20 years in the Army Dental Corps, Roscoe Chandler taught at the Texas Dental School in Houston.

He retired from teaching and moved to Rio Rancho in 1985.

"He was a successful man and had what he wanted in life. Everything he did, he did for his kids," Mize said.

Larry Chandler remembers his dad making him and his brothers go to every one of his sister's rehearsals when she was in musical productions in high school.

"My dad said, `You're going to support your sister,' " he said. "That was one way of showing us your family comes first."

Roscoe Chandler also loved to hunt.

Mize said her father was such an avid hunter that on his third date with her mother, he told her he'd bring her some quail.

"My mom said, `What do I need quail for?' " Mize said.

Larry Chandler said his father also was an avid gardener and loved nature and nature photography.

Roscoe Chandler put his passions aside sometimes in order to make his children happy, his son said.

"He took pictures for years and years with old cameras because he didn't want to spend the money on new cameras," Larry Chandler said. "He bought his kids new cameras but he wouldn't do it for himself."

Two years ago, Larry Chandler said, his father got a new camera for Christmas.

Roscoe Chandler is survived by his wife, Billie; his children, Melanie Mize, Larry Chandler, John Chandler and Gary Chandler; sister, Gwen Gray; 13 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. today at Daniels Family Funeral Services, 4310 Sara Road S.E. in Rio Rancho.

Sources: Local Albuquerque Tribune;

Contributed by Marti Graham, April 2007. Information posted as courtesy to researchers. The contributor is not related to nor researching any of the above.