Jesse Lawrence Roark Jr

Jesse Lawrence Roark Jr. was born in Jackson, Mississippi on August 30, 1927 to Jesse Lawrence Roark MD and Sarah Elizabeth Maulsbury Roark and died August 10, 2014 in Albuquerque, NM. He had a "pleasant" (his word) childhood and was given an excellent education going from St James Academy, an Episcopal prep school in Hagerstown, MD to Franklin Marshall College in Lancaster, PA and finally to Columbia University where he received a Master's degree in Philosophy and Literature in 1949. He did extensive work toward a PhD at Columbia but did not complete the course. He was an excellent student. Roark served twice in the US Army first at the end of WWII in Army Intelligence translating German documents and again in the mid 1950s interrogating prisoners in Korea. He spent a short time in the Merchant Marines and then served as ship's purser with Gracelines. He also worked in several publishing capacities in New York including book indexing. Occupationally, Roark was primarily a writer and poet. His study of philosophy led him toward Eastern religion, and he became a practicing Buddhist. He spent some time at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. Except for some science fiction short stories in FANTASTIC Magazine in the 1970s, his work was published in India. These include a biography of Sri Aurobindo, two poems on Japanese subjects, and a volume of sea sonnets originating from his time with Gracelines. This is by no means his complete output. He left many unpublished manuscripts. Some may know him better by his pen name: Jesse Roarke. He claimed the e was added for numerological reasons he never explained. Graveside Services will be held Thursday, August 21, 2014, 3:00 p.m., at Santa Fe National Cemetery. FRENCH - Wyoming 7121 Wyoming Blvd. NE (505) 823-9400