Timothy H. Roche, 77, retired president and business manager of Sheet Metal Workers Local 73, died of brain cancer Sunday, March 17, at his home in Elmhurst. He was a dynamic leader and a sharp dresser, particularly during his tenure as leader of the union from 1982 until his retirement in 1994, but he never forgot his rank and file heritage, said his daughter Nancy Seelig. He was born and raised in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on the West Side, and served in the U.S. Army in World War II. After the war, he joined his father in the sheet metal trade, starting out as an apprentice laborer in Local 73. “He came from very humble beginnings,” said his daughter. “He always had a positive attitude, he had a great belief in the union movement and he always truly cared about the rank-and-file members.” In 1970, he was elected as a business representative for the union and 12 years later was elected president, said his daughter. He engineered strikes in 1986 that crippled work on the McCormick Place expansion project and at O’Hare International Airport after union leaders and management butted heads over their contract. Mr. Roche also served on the board of the Amalgamated Trust & Savings Bank and the Chicago Federation of Labor, family members said. He and his wife of 53 years, the former Terry Readdy, lived in Elmhurst for the past 40 years. They met in 1948 through a mutual friend, and a month later, she introduced him as her future husband to her father, who was painting the kitchen, his daughter said. “Her father said, `Well, if you’re my future son-in-law, pick up a paintbrush and help me,'” his daughter said. Other survivors include three other daughters, Kathleen McLaughlin, Sharon Roche and Julie Roche; and four grandchildren. Mass was said Thursdayin Elmhurst.
