Roland Reboussin

Born in West Point, New York to Marcel and Sylvia Reboussin on January 6, 1935, his family soon moved to Évreux, Normandy. They sailed back to the US several times, including on the Normandie liner’s record-breaking crossing. The family returned to the US just before the outbreak of WWII. Roland lived in Washington, DC with his mother during the war while his father served in the Free French Forces. They moved to Williamsburg, Virginia after the war, where Marcel was a college professor and Sylvia an elementary school teacher. His parents lived there for the rest of their lives, spending summers in France and giving Roland the opportunity to know his father’s family, their language and culture. He appreciated farm life and its hardworking people, harvesting wheat and tying sheaves as a teenager.

After graduating from Matthew Whaley School, Roland attended Swarthmore College, where he met his future wife, Patricia Schastey. Pat caught his attention by doing crossword puzzles during lectures. After both graduated, they married in 1957. Roland attained the rank of Lieutenant in the US Navy, serving as a courier in Jacksonville, Florida. He once landed on a carrier to deliver orders. After his tour of duty, the family moved to Lawrence, where Roland completed a doctorate in Psychology at Kansas University. Sons David and Daniel were born in 1960 and 1961.

In 1965, the family moved to Wisconsin, where Roland taught at Beloit College. A sabbatical year in Glasgow, Scotland allowed them to travel in 1971. In 1979, sons at college, the couple moved to Madison after Roland took a job with the Wisconsin Council on Criminal Justice, redesigning crime reporting and improving abuse prevention, shelter programs, and halfway houses. He was recruited as a Research Analyst in 1986 to the National Academy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Quantico. There, he taught literacy in criminology and helped develop quantitative methods of tracking serial criminals. Roland retired in 1997, living in Fredericksburg, Virginia until 1999. He and Pat traveled extensively together, including trips to Florida, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Tahiti.

Roland was natively bilingual in French and English, later learning Spanish and Norwegian for travel. He engaged his curiosity through conversation and reading, pursued interests from astronomy and science, camping, trout fishing, canoeing and sailing, and cross-country skiing. He enjoyed mystery novels and history, learned photography, and listened to “fifties” popular band and classical music. In college, he played trombone with Peter Schickele of P.D.Q. Bach fame. He performed with friends in the outdoor historical drama, the Common Glory. Roland loved milk chocolate and ice cream, eating a candy bar daily for many years.

In 1999 he and Pat moved to Gainesville, Florida, close to Dan, while spending much time in Asheville, North Carolina near David. Roland volunteered as a court-appointed mediator and as a reading tutor for a middle school in Gainesville. He and Pat moved to the Oak Hammock retirement community in 2010.

Roland is survived by his wife Pat, Dan and his wife Ann Glowasky, David and his wife Beth, and his grandchildren Claire and Auguste Reboussin.