John Roach (shipbuilder) - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

During the protracted dispute over Dolphin, Roach had fallen ill with a chronic mouth infection. In 1886, the illness was diagnosed as cancer. Roach underwent surgery in spring of that year but it provided only temporary relief. He died at the age of 71 on January 10, 1887, while his business was still in the hands of receivers. At his funeral, held at St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church on Fourth Ave. and Twenty-second St., 500 mourners filled the galleries alone, many of them employees of John Roach & Sons who demonstrated a "real affection" for their late employer.

Following Roach's death and the settlement of all the company's debts, Roach's heirs found themselves still in possession of both the Chester shipyard and the Morgan Iron Works. Roach's eldest son John Baker Roach assumed head of the business, which would continue for another 20 years, although the yard would never again regain the pre-eminent position in American shipbuilding that it had enjoyed under Roach Sr.

In total, the shipyard established by Roach built 179 iron ships between 1871 and 1907—98 under Roach's own management and an additional 81 under that of his eldest surviving son, John Baker Roach. At its peak, Roach's business empire is said to have been the nation's largest employer with the exception of the railroad companies. After the retirement of the Roach family from the shipbuilding business, the Roach yard was taken over by W. Averell Harriman, who built an additional 40 ships there for the U.S. Shipping Board during and after World War I.