Why Her? Why Not Me?

This life story traces a major segment of Roland’s adult life, an adult life riddled with devastating personal events. During the past thirty years, Roland has had ample opportunities to indulge in self-pity and to become extremely deft at it. In large part, this stems from the parade of very unique and scarring events that have beset his two sets of children and himself: (1) his having to singly raise his five children after his wife of seventeen years abandons him and their children for another man; (2) his having married a young lady, twenty-seven years his junior (Roland 52, his wife 25); (3) his having fathered two more sons, the youngest born when Roland was sixty years old, the other who was at death’s door at age four due to kidney cancer; (4) both he and his wife having been diagnosed with cancer within a five-week period, her with breast cancer, Roland with prostate cancer; (5) his wife dying at age forty-six and the associated emotional devastation experienced by their two young sons and himself; (6) and, for the second time in his life, the necessity of this now seventy-four-year-old parent having to singly raise his children. The support of Roland’s family and friends and, especially, his Catholic faith gave him the courage and spirit to push through these incredible hardships.

Roland Bain was a Great Depression baby, having been born in Los Angles, California in 1928. After graduating from Los Angeles High School, he enlisted in the Navy near the end of World War II. Following his discharge, he attended UCLA where he earned his Masters Degree in petroleum geology. While at UCLA he joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, becoming its president in his senior year. In 1956, Roland was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Sorbonne and to conduct research at the French Petroleum Institute near Paris, France. His first employment was with Texaco Corp. where he became engaged in the search for oil and gas accumulations in the Los Angeles Basin. Two years later he was transferred to Sacramento where he spent the following seven years conducting similar research. Leaving Texaco, he became a Consulting Petroleum Geologist and was successful in developing several impressive accumulations of natural gas. His expertise resulted in his consulting for such entities as the Pacific Gas &Electric Co., Dow Chemical and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Rolands publishing credits include two published books - HOLLYWOOD DECO FASHIONS OF THE 1920s, a heavily illustrated fashion-design book about his mothers arrival from France in 1919 and her becoming a costume designer in Hollywoods movie industry during its1920s Golden Age, and ENTER THE ENEMY, A French Familys Life Under German Occupation. Other publishing credits includea seven-year stint as a columnist for The Sacramento Union (the oldest daily newspaper west of the Mississippi), and numerous published professional articles. His dedication to professional reporting earned him honorary life-time memberships in two professional associations.