Mary Roach - Personal Life

Personal Life

Mary Roach was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. Later her family would move to Etna, New Hampshire, where Roach attended Hanover High School.

Roach has an office in downtown Oakland and lives in the Glenview neighborhood of Oakland with her husband Ed Rachles, who is an illustrator and graphic designer. Roach also has two step-daughters.

While it is clear that Roach has a wide variety of somewhat unusual interests, her interest is not limited to observation alone. While researching material for her book, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Roach came across Dr. Jing Deng, a University College London Medical School senior lecturer in medical physics. Dr. Deng was experimenting with 4-D ultrasound imaging and was in need of test subjects to engage in intercourse while wearing the ultrasound equipment so that real-time images could be captured. Roach and her husband Ed were the first willing participants in this study. When asked how she was able to convince her husband to participate, Roach said, “He’s crazy supportive. It was much harder for him, it was nothing for me. I was just a receptacle. I was just taking notes.”

While Roach has often been quoted saying that she doesn't have much free time between writing books, something she is very fond of is backpacking and travel, the latter is something she has been able to do a great deal of while doing research for her articles and books; to that end, Roach has been able to visit all seven continents twice. Roach has been to Antarctica a few times as part of the National Science Foundation's Polar Program; her Antarctic trip in 1997 was taken to write an article for Discover Magazine on meteorite hunting, with meteorite hunter Ralph Harvey.