Rowland A. Maddox Jr.

Rowland A Maddox, Jr. was born Rowland Junior Maddox on June 10, 1925 in Kiowa, Kansas to Rowland Maddox, Sr. and Freeda Woodrich. He and his father migrated to California during the Great Depression when he was 10 years old, settling in Arlington, near Riverside.

When Rowland was in high school he enlisted in the ROTC, and when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor he tried to enlist immediately but was turned away and told to come back when he was 17. So, on his 17th birthday in 1942, he enlisted in the US Navy. Rowland served our country as a Gunner, First class petty officer at Pearl Harbor and on the USS Pocomoke in the South Seas for 3 years, 4 months and 16 days.

In a letter he wrote when he enlisted he said “In three years I come out of the Navy. I am going to marry one of two girls. I think they know who they are. Heaven help me pick the right one.” Heaven heard and 14 days after being Honorably discharged he married his Sweetie, Barbara Jean Jones, on November 9, 1945. They were married until her passing in 2015.

Rowland was blessed with creative artistic ability. He made costumes and put on carnivals with his daughter. He designed a float for the Rose Parade. He drew treasure maps for his grandkids, made them travel cassette tapes for long car rides and entered art contests with them. He told Bible stories through chalk talks, built his own house, creatively saved the life of an injured chicken, and always fixed whatever was broken. He was an inventor, creating the WarpAide and the Roll-T, and loved making people’s lives easier. He worked as a construction engineer, a building inspector, a Systems Administrator, and even owned his own Christmas Tree farm. One of his most notable architectural designs was the Sportsman’s Lodge in Studio City, California. He was also the owner of Warp Ways which grew out of his wife’s love of weaving. He was very civic-minded and served his community in his retirement years as a Police Volunteer in both Placerville and Upland.

Some of his favorite things were fishing, gardening and eating pie a la mode “in order to be able to get a good night's rest”. He had a great sense of humor and was always laughing at his own “jokes'' long before everyone else caught on.

But even more than all of this, Rowland loved his savior Jesus Christ. Rowland was born again at a Billy Graham crusade in 1965, along with his wife and daughter, and never looked back. And that is the greatest thing he leaves behind, the example of steadfast faith that he passed on to generation after generation of his family and to others who knew him. He led Bible studies, men’s prison ministry, home church, and was a member of the Gideons. His life impacted many and we were blessed to have had him with us for so long.

Rowland was preceded in death by his wife Barbara, his daughter Ronda, and his two sisters. This kind and gracious man is survived by his two grandchildren, Jenni (Kraig) and Joel (June), eight great grandchildren, Adam (Michelle), Mallory (Tim), Natalie (Ryan), Kate, Allie, Micah, Abby, and Caleb, and four great great grandchildren, Frankie, Everett, Lily and Saoirse.

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.” - 1 John 4:7-11