Irwin Roth
July 5, 2019

Irwin (Srol) Roth, last of a dozen children born to the late David and Mollie (Melnick) Roth, passed away early on the morning of July 5 following an illness of several months. He was 96, and in the later years of his life had become the loving and much-loved elder of a five-generation family. Preceding him in death in addition to his parents were sisters Rose Pincus, Rhea Lillie Schultz, Luba Bonn, Pauline Jacobs, Esther Steinberg, Rebecca Roth and Ida Roth, a child victim of the influenza epidemic following World War I; half-sister Molly Friedman; brothers Ben, Lou, Nathan and Joseph (Yos) Roth; nieces Mildred Ascher, Shirley Levenson and Bernice Gibbons and cousin Barry Harris. Surviving him are nephews Bill Schultz (TX); Gene Bonn (OH); Rob Jacobs (NC) and David Steinberg (PA); nieces Harriet Gross (TX), Ruth Gujarati (NY) and Barbara Drischler (AZ); great-nephews Sol Marcus (PA) and Chad Bonn (NJ); great-nieces Donna Silverstein (PA), Jacquelyn Bonn (OH), Devra Durkee (IL), Kimberly Walls (OH), Joan Gujarati (NY), Diane Chesnut (NY), Joyce Offerman (PA), Michelle Meiches, (TX) and Lesley Clark (MD); great-great nieces Lena Krutilla (PA), Mollie Wilson (PA), Madison Bonn (NJ), Laura Chesnut (NY), Vivia Glover (MD), Rose Marcus (PA) and Lynne Gazit (Tel Mond, Israel); great great nephews Jacob Bonn (NJ), Jonathan and Ezra Walls (OH), Tommy Chesnut (NY), Robert Durkee (IL), Ben Durkee (MT), Ignatius Clark (MD), Lucian and Cassius Glover (MD) and Asaf David Gazit, (Tel Mond, Israel); and great-great-grand nephews Andrew Krutilla and Alexander Wilson (PA). Also surviving are cousins Jackie Harris and Michael Melnick, both of Pittsburgh and many other Roths and Melnicks across the United States. The five Roth brothers all enlisted in various branches of military service the day after Pearl Harbor. As a proud member of the Army Air Corps, Irv was never seen in later life without a cap proclaiming him a World War II veteran and he became a charter member of the World War II Museum in New Orleans, making a visit there soon after its opening in 2000. He was stationed first in Africa, then at the U.S. air base in Bari, Italy, where he was a B-17 bomber mechanic and also rode with two missions as those planes dropped bombs over Berlin. Years later, with several others he had served with, he made a return visit to Bari – the only overseas trip he ever took. When Irv and his brothers had all returned to Pittsburgh after the war, they joined forces to buy a big house in Pittsburgh’s East End for their family. All of them then joined their father in his plumbing business, but Irv, a graduate of Fifth Avenue High School, soon decided to go back to school for the night courses at Pitt and Robert Morris College that prepared him for his lifelong career in real estate. Before the onset of his final illness, he was still living independently in that same family house on Jackson Street and continuing his long-time affiliation with Meyers Management. Irv’s dearest friends of past and present have included the late Bob Leavy and Bill Laughlin, both of whom shared many evenings with him at the East Liberty YMCA, and members of his "Morning Gang” who are now having  their weekly breakfasts at the Wilkinsburg McDonald’s without him. Irwin Roth’s family would like to thank the staffs at Juniper Village, Charles Morris Nursing Center, Sivitz Jewish Hospice and Home Instead for their compassion and caring at the end of his life. Services at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Avenue, Shadyside on Wednesday at 11 AM. Visitation one hour prior to services (10 - 11 AM). Interment Cneseth Israel Cemetery. For those wishing to make charitable donations in his memory, the family suggests Hebrew Free Loan and Hebrew Free Burial in Pittsburgh, or to Congregation Beth Torah in Richardson, Texas, which – thanks to Irv – now reads every Shabbat from the Torah scroll originally presented many years ago to the now defunct Cneseth Israel Congregation by all the Roth children, in honor of their parents. www.schugar.com

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