ROLAND ARMAND BIBEAU Jan. 14, 1938 – Feb. 4, 2024
Roland passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family and the skilled staff that lovingly cared for him in his final years.
Born to Armand and Marguarite (Ledoux) Bibeau in Blackstone, Massachusetts, he and his sister Constance grew up in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
He is preceded by his parents, and wife Barbara Bibeau.
Roland shared childhood stories of fishing with his father in the local ponds and the Narragansett Bay, of riding his bicycle all over the hills of Woonsocket, amateur radio, and flying model airplanes.
He graduated from Mt. Saint Charles Academy, a Roman Catholic high school where he studied and prepared for college under the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. Attending Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, he received an Associates of Science and Technology in Electrical Engineering in June of 1962. He received his draft notice in 1962 while working towards a bachelor’s degree. Roland enlisted rather than be drafted and was able to extend his studies of electronic communications with the Army before being sent to Viet Nam.
Completing his military service, he continued his service to our country by serving as a senior microwave technician at Goldstone Deep Space Tracking Station, for NASA. In those years, he regaled his children and nieces and nephews with the thrill of having a small part in numerous Gemini and Apollo missions from the deserts of California. In 1976 he moved his family to Maryland to work at the Navel Research Laboratory’s Blossom Point facility to further the understanding and limitations of satellite ground communication for NASA and contribute to tracking of Soviet submarines. The allure of deep space and large radio dishes sent Roland and his family to Puerto Rico to work at the Arecibo Observatory and enjoy the island life for a couple of years, before coming to Los Alamos to live and work for LASL/LANL from 1981 to 2002. He loved New Mexico so much that he never considered leaving her numerous enchantments.
After retiring, he and his wife Barbara moved to Rio Rancho where he took the freedoms of retirement seriously and leaned into all of his hobbies and volunteer work. He enjoyed camping, fly fishing, riding his bicycle on the Bosque Trail, following his beloved Red Sox, playing pool with Barb, and researching the genealogy of the Bibeau and Ledoux families. His volunteer work included bringing pets to Sombrillo Nursing Home to see their elderly owners, recording birth, marriage, and death data to the aid of the French-Canadian Genealogical Society, and helping hopeful amateur radio operators study for the licensing exam.
To know Roland was to love him. He approached life as an adventure, and never ceased learning. He humbly taught others about science and technology by sharing his experiences and drawing on their curiosities.
He is survived by his sister Constance Stafford of Oxford, Massachusetts, daughters Joanna Bibeau Gillespie (Ken) of Los Alamos, Babette Bibeau Acker (Kent) of Salmon, Idaho, step-daughter Vicky Lujan-Gibbs (John) of Los Lunas, his grandchildren Jordan Gillespie (Melissa), Parker Gillespie, and Jeremiah Balliet (Makala), great-grandchildren Leland and Laynee, and so many nieces and nephews whom he kept in touch with and adored.
A funeral mass will be held at Church of the Incarnation, Rio Rancho on Friday February 23 at 11am.