Lamar H. Roeder, a retired Aberdeen Proving Ground bookmaker and longtime active member of Alcoholics Anonymous who recently celebrated more than 50 years of sobriety, died Monday of heart failure at Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in Southern Maryland.
The former Middle River resident, who earlier had lived in Highlandtown, was 86.
Lamar Herman Roeder, the son of a carpenter and homemaker, was born and raised in Schuylkill Haven, Pa. He was a 1941 graduate of Schuylkill Haven High School, where he played varsity football.
He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1943 and spent the war years as a turret gunnery instructor at Harlingen Air Field in Harlingen, Texas. He was discharged with the rank of staff sergeant in 1946.
After the war, he worked as a sheet-metal worker at the old Glenn L. Martin Co. plant in Middle River and as a guard at the Baltimore City Jail before taking a job in the early 1960s at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
"He assembled highly classified technical weapons manuals for the APG and the Pentagon," said his daughter, Marla Mierisch of Severna Park.
He retired in 1985.
"He started drinking when he was young, and by his 30s realized he had a problem," Mrs. Mierisch said.
Mr. Roeder was 33 when he joined Alcoholics Anonymous.
"When he started, there were only 11 meetings in Baltimore, and there were few treatment facilities in those days. He really believed in the 12-step program and wanted to reach out and help others as he had been helped," his daughter said.
"He was at many a bedside holding people's hands and talking to them. He'd fill his car with guys and drive them to their meetings, whether they were here or in Pennsylvania or Virginia," Mrs. Mierisch said.
"And it made no difference to him whether the person who needed help was a corporate CEO or poor. It didn't matter to him," his daughter said.
Mr. Roeder helped establish a meeting for alcoholics at the Maryland Penitentiary, volunteered for more than two decades at Chip House in Baltimore and was on the board of Pathways, a treatment center.
"In the 1960s, because of segregation, he helped establish a meeting for blacks in the penitentiary," Mrs. Mierisch said.
Mr. Roeder maintained a busy and full schedule. "He was out most nights of the week at meetings and really put some mileage on his car," his daughter said, laughing.
She attributed her father's success in AA to his "sense of humor and ability at telling a good story."
