Radar engineer loved his family, music and road trips
Published December 9, 2020
ORMOND BEACH, Fla. — Roland W. Michaud, 89, a pioneering radar engineer during the Cold War and a devoted husband and father of seven, died Nov. 6, 2020 at his second home in Ormond Beach, Florida.
Roland made Massachusetts his home base and raised his children with his wife Sallie Ann Michaud (née Smallwood) in Woburn and Lynnfield. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and designed anti-missile systems for the U.S. military as an electrical engineer with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Raytheon Company, The MITRE Corp. and SenCom Corp.
A couple of years after Sallie’s death, Roland met Beverly A. Blackwell (née Porter), a grade-school teacher with the North Middlesex Regional School District in Ashby, Massachusetts. They were married in 2001 in Lunenburg, where they resided for many years before becoming “snowbirds” and splitting their time between Florida and their home in Pepperell.
Although he always returned to the state of his birth, Roland adventured around the world. He moved his young family to Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands and to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. For work, he traveled to such places as Alaska, Hawaii, California and Louisiana.
Roland invested in real estate and ran rental properties in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, as well as the Hillcrest Inn in Ogunquit, Maine. Sallie and their seven children shared the work at the Hillcrest Inn, serving breakfast and making up the inn’s 31 guest rooms.
“My dad always had a new project cooking in the back of his mind,” said his daughter Anne Michaud-Harman, a writer in Huntington, N.Y. “He dreamed big and brought us along for the ride.”
Roland enjoyed keeping busy by undertaking home maintenance projects, repairing second-hand cars, and playing trumpet, board games, caroms and cards. He instilled his love for music and games in his children.
Roland also loved a good road trip. He drove up and down the East Coast numerous times, sometimes with the whole family packed in a station wagon, and often times with a U-Haul trailer in tow. He moved his children in and out of college, and traveled to numerous graduations, recitals and other events for his children and grandchildren. His devotion to “being there” (literally) for his family was matched only by his joy of driving.
Always available to help with home projects – from planting gardens or installing ceiling fans – Roland would round out the project with a celebratory ice cream or fish dinner. He was close with his four siblings and several childhood friends, and he was a lifelong member of the Catholic Church.
Roland was born Joseph Roland William Michaud on Oct. 23, 1931 in Salem, Massachusetts to Edgar, a carpenter, and Irene (née Morin), a singer, textile mill worker and homemaker. He was their second child.
Roland grew up in the French section of Salem, populated by French-speaking Canadians who emigrated from Quebec in search of jobs in New England’s factories and mills. The center of the neighborhood’s spiritual, social and cultural life was St. Joseph Church. The neighborhood children attended the parish school, where French-speaking nuns offered half-day instruction in English and half-a-day in French. Roland graduated from St. Joseph’s in 1950 and remained lifelong friends with many of his classmates.
He believed in education and was the first in his family to attend college. Roland earned a B.S. in 1960 and an M.S. in 1969, both in electrical engineering from Northeastern University.
His work supported the U.S. Department of Defense in tactical and strategic battle management and air traffic control systems.
His wife Beverly, of Ormond Beach, Florida, survives him. Roland’s brother Roger and his wife Audrey Michaud of Danvers; and his sister Jacqueline and her husband George Normand of Danvers also survive him. He is also survived by his daughter Anne Michaud-Harman and her husband Daniel Harman of Huntington, New York; his son William Michaud and his wife Nancy (Leach) Michaud of New Hartford, Connecticut; his daughter Mary Michaud and her husband Mark Edwards of Fleetwood, North Carolina; his son Glenn Michaud of Danvers; his daughter Gail Parente of Melrose; his son Paul and his wife Loretta (Diaz) Michaud of Houston, Texas; and his daughter Janet Michaud and her husband Michael Montgomery of Washington, D.C. Roland’s stepson Mykol Blackwell of Redway, California; his stepdaughter Sharon (Foehl) and her husband Robbie Harlow of Ormond Beach, Florida; and his stepson Stephen Blackwell of Palm Springs, California also survive him. Many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews also survive him. Roland was predeceased by his sister Lorraine Novello and her husband Russell of Peabody; and by his brother Edgar C. Michaud and his wife Florence V. (née Mafley) of Beverly.
Roland’s ashes will be buried in Lynnfield alongside his first wife. A funeral Mass will be held at St. Mary of the Annunciation Roman Catholic Church on Conant Street in Danvers when the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
