{"id":204980,"date":"2026-04-17T13:37:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=204980"},"modified":"2026-04-18T12:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:04:09","slug":"walter-g-roehm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/04\/17\/walter-g-roehm\/","title":{"rendered":"Walter G. Roehm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Walter G. Roehm, 87, of Rockford, passed away Thursday afternoon, April 16, 2026, surrounded by his family at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was born on August 22, 1938 in Van Wert County, to Paul A. and Elsie (Scaer) Roehm. Walter was united in marriage to Nancy S. Sidle on January 14, 1961 at Zion Lutheran Church, Schumm.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"430\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Roehm-Walter-.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-204981\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Walter Roehm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>He was a devoted member of Zion Lutheran Church, Schumm in Willshire, Ohio, where he served as a former treasurer of the adult Bible classes. Walter was also active in several organizations, including the Van Wert County Farm Bureau, Cockshutt Antique Tractor Club, Van Wert Farm Focus, and Thrivent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walter was a lifelong farmer in Van Wert County. In addition to farming, he drove a school bus for Parkway Local Schools for 15 years and worked as a truck driver for many years. He was also employed at Hoosier Soil Service for 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He had a passion for tractor pulls, both as a participant and a spectator. He enjoyed attending antique tractor shows with his family and took great pride in collecting and restoring tractors. One of the most remarkable aspects of Walter\u2019s life was his resilience as a 1957 polio survivor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Nancy Roehm of Rockford; sons, Jeffrey L. (Susan Swygart) Roehm, and Melvin W. (Sue) Roehm both of Willshire; daughter, Lynnette S. (Aaron) Carmean of Rockford; son, Richard R. (Cary) Roehm of Rockford; son, David A. (Jill) Roehm; sister, Ella Thieme of Berne, Indiana; 11 grandchildren, Steven Roehm, Eric Roehm, Stephanie Riley, Jeremy Roehm, Brock Roehm, Lauren Roth, Brandi Shellebarger, Paige Riesen, Cody Carmean, Kiersten Hoenie, Raegan Homan, and 14 great- grandchildren, Addisyn, Lorelie, Kalynn, Deacon, Ruby, Ronan, Myca, Zane, Graham, Berkley, Aubree, Mitchell, Eli, and Kayley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was preceded in death by sister, Helen (Palmer) Schwartz; brother Paul Roehm Jr., and brother-in-law, Wilbert Thieme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 22, at Zion Lutheran Church, Schumm, with Pastor Hayden Folks officiating. Burial will follow at Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm. Family and friends will be received from 3-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, April 21, at the Zwick &amp; Jahn Funeral Home in Decatur and one hour prior to the service at the church on Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Memorials may be given to Lutheran Hour or Zion Lutheran Church, Schumm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walter G. Roehm, 87, of Rockford, passed away Thursday afternoon, April 16, 2026, surrounded by his family at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was born on August 22, 1938 in Van Wert County, to Paul A. and Elsie (Scaer) Roehm. Walter was united in marriage to Nancy S. Sidle on January 14, 1961 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 08:58:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204980"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205034,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204980\/revisions\/205034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}