Roger K. Taylor

Roger Kinsella Taylor passed away peacefully on Saturday, March 9th 2024 in Athol, Massachusetts at the age of 82.

Roger was born in Springfield, MA on June 7th 1941. His older sister, Susan, was his greatest confidante from birth to death. His earliest memories were the celebrations on Clifton Avenue when the Second World War ended in 1945. He always said if you had to start remembering somewhere, the end of a war was a pretty good place.  

He was predeceased by his parents Roger Taylor and Gertrude Kinsella, his sister Susan; and survived by his two children Roger Taylor and his wife Unmi Abkin, and Moira Edmonds and her husband Ben, his grandchildren Coco Taylor and Wren Edmonds; as well as many nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews all of whom made him proud to be family. 

He attended the public schools in Springfield until he joined the United States Navy at the age of 17. In retrospect, he would be the first to admit that he wished he had attended the prom and skipped floating around the Gulf of Mexico during the Cuban Missile Crisis instead. He also built torpedoes in Groton Connecticut and was stationed in Spain as well. He received his honorable discharge in June of 1964, and he started college at UMass Amherst with his future wife and the mother of his children, Barbara Malloch, that fall. He studied philosophy and while he earned enough credits to graduate, he never walked across the stage to receive a diploma. This would not come as a surprise to anyone who was close to him, as he had a healthy distrust of organized education, and government in general, in the turbulent era of the Vietnam War. 

He was known as a sharp dresser, and a keen observer of the human condition. He had a twinkle in his eye (when you could see them beneath his voluminous eyebrows) and dispensed sage advice to generations of young cooks, servers, and bakers during his years working in restaurants in Western Massachusetts. He was a voracious reader and noticed beauty wherever he saw it. While his marriage ended after 17 years, he and Barbara worked together with care and respect to raise their children with dignity and love. That is something his children will always be grateful for. 

 Any discussion of Roger’s life would be incomplete without mention of his nephew Robert Watson, for whom he was profoundly grateful. They supported one another, lived together at times, worked together for decades, comforted each other when the Red Sox lost in 1986, and celebrated when they won in 2004. Roger was proud of his nephew in a way for which he didn’t have words, which was odd, for a man with so many of them.

 A celebration of life gathering for family and friends will be held on Saturday June 29, 2024 at 36 Hathaway Rd. Westhampton, MA. 

To leave an online condolence, please visit www.mackfamilyfh.com.

Kevin J. Mack, Walter C. Taylor, and Melissa A. McQuaid, Funeral Directors.