Col. Roy L. Tweedie Obituary

Roy Tweedie passed away on Nov 3, 2009 at the age of 92 at his home in Fairfield, CA after a 2-year battle with squamous cell carcinoma. Roy was born on Sep 4, 1917 in San Francisco, to Herbert and Evelyn Tweedie. He had three taller brothers (Herb, Jack, and Tom). His father was a Presbyterian minister who took his family to ministries in Oakland, Visalia, and Wilmington, CA. Herb and Evelyn built a cabin at Stateline, CA in 1913 and Roy grew up visiting that cabin in the summers that began a love affair with the Sierras that lasted his whole life. Roy and his brothers all graduated from Occidental College. After college, Roy took a job teaching near Susanville, CA. He met his future wife, Tish O'Kelly, while both were taking flying lessons in 1940. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1941. Roy married Tish in July 1942 while on leave from pilot training. He eventually served 30 years in the Air Force flying most fighter aircraft from the P-35 to the F-106 and held many command assignments. He retired from the Air Force in Dec 1970 to Santa Rosa. Roy and Tish built a retirement home in Tahoe-Donner near Truckee in 1973. This became a focus for family and a base for Roy's passions of hiking, backpacking, fishing, skiing, golf, wood cutting, and snow shoveling. Roy and Tish moved to Fairfield in 1998. Roy is survived by his wife of 67 years, Tish; daughter and her husband, Pat and Tom Long; son and his wife, Bill and Chris Tweedie; grandchildren, Deanna Rollo, Tom Long, Catherine Tweedie, and Alexandra Tweedie; great-grandchild, Laurie Rollo; and his younger brother, Tom Tweedie. The family would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to NorthBay Hospice and the staff at Paradise Valley Estates. At Roy's request there will be no memorial service. He lived a very long and full life and felt this was enough. Friends are asked to consider life and death issues in their own way, and in their own time.