Former world church associate secretary also aided evacuation at Saigon Adventist Hospital
Don Roth, 84, a veteran Seventh-day Adventist communicator, pastor, and advocate for retired denominational workers, died at his home in Loma Linda, California, on July 26 following a brief illness.
Roth, a former associate secretary at the church's world headquarters, also played a major role in evacuating national employees of the Saigon Adventist Hospital during the fall of South Vietnam in April of 1975.
During the Vietnam War, Roth was the primary source of Adventist news in the region, covering events ranging from a visit of the Loma Linda University heart surgery team to the end of church work in Vietnam and eventual evacuation of personnel.
Much of Roth's legacy as an Adventist communicator is the record of actions, events, news, and human-interest stories published in the journals and newsletters he edited.
The Adventist Periodical Index lists more than 420 articles published under his byline, primarily in the Adventist Review.
Daniel Andrew Roth was born in Norwood, Ohio, on April 14, 1927, the fifth of six children of German immigrant parents. His father was a minister and the family moved frequently.
Roth graduated from Greater New York Academy in Queens. In 1948, while attending Washington Missionary College -- now Washington Adventist University -- in Takoma Park, Maryland, he married fellow student Doris Ann Behringer. They graduated together in 1950.
Later that year he began denominational work in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving as a departmental secretary of the former East Pennsylvania Conference.
In 1954, he accepted the position of public relations and radio-TV secretary of the Columbia Union Conference, the church administrative unit for the Mid-Atlantic United States. He also served as editor of the Columbia Union Visitor, then the church's weekly paper.
Roth was ordained as an Adventist minister in 1959.
In 1965, the Roth's accepted a position in Singapore, where he served as the assistant secretary of the Far Eastern Division, which then covered 17 nations of Asia.
Roth's personal relationship with United States news agencies stationed in Saigon provided him access to evacuation procedures when South Vietnam fell to Hanoi. Roth personally helped 36 individuals safely retreat to Guam.
At the church's 1975 General Conference Session, held in Vienna, Austria, Roth was elected as an associate secretary at the Adventist Church's world headquarters. In that role he recruited missionaries for the church's Far Eastern and Southern Asia territories. He continued in the post until September 1990, when he retired from full-time service and moved to Yucaipa, California.
He worked part time from 1991 to 2011 as a representative of the General Conference Secretariat on the campus of Loma Linda University. In this role, he maintained contact with retired Adventist workers in the region and often supplied information on their lives and careers to church media, including Adventist Review magazine and Adventist News Network.
He also contributed to city newspapers, including the Yucaipa News Mirror and the Loma Linda City News.
In 2009, Roth received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual meeting of the Society of Adventist Communicators. He was also recognized by the Loma Linda University School of Medicine for his ongoing work with alumni projects and recruitment of physicians for overseas mission service.
In May, Roth received an award from Adventist world church Secretary G. T. Ng for his lifetime of denominational service.
He is survived by his wife, three children, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.