John V. Roach Obituary, Cause Of Death, Wife, Children

Fort Worth business legend and TCU alumnus John Vinson Roach II has died early Sunday, at age 83. His cause of death is yet to be revealed.

Roach was a former chairman and CEO of Tandy Corp. and former chairman of the TCU Board of Trustees.

After joining the Fort Worth-based Tandy Corp. in 1967, he rose through the ranks and helped turn it into a personal computer behemoth in the late 1970s.

At 42, he was named Tandy’s president in 1981 and later CEO from 1983 to 1998.

He joined Tandy as a data processing manager and helped lead the company as a pioneer in the microcomputer industry.

“At that time, neither the concept nor the thought of a personal computer had even been conceived,” Roach said in a TCU Honors biography.

Roach was integral in foreseeing how personal computing could change the future for the business and consumers.

In 1977, Tandy introduced one of the first retail home computers, the TRS-80. Tandy hired eventual Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen to write the software code for the TRS-80.

Roach earned a physics and math degree from TCU and later added a master’s degree in business administration.

It was during his graduate school time at TCU that Roach first learned of computer programming.

Roach was born on Nov. 22, 1938, in Stamford. His family moved to Fort Worth in 1942.

John V. Roach Wife & Children
Roach is survived by his wife of 59 years, Jean and two daughters- Amy Roach Bailey and Lori Roach Davis- seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

His wife and two daughters are also TCU graduates. They would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.