Geoffrey H. Root ’57

Geoffrey H. Root ’57 passed away on November 17, 2023. Geoff graduated from Phillips Academy Andover. He majored in history and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (house manager, vice president) and the Ledyard Canoe Club. During his summers he worked as a ranch hand and hay stacker in Nevada. Geoff was a career Marine, first in the Marine Platoon Leaders Class and then serving three tours of duty in Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Later deployments were in Yokohama and Yokosuka, Japan, and Cherry Point, North Carolina. He retired with distinction as a lieutenant colonel commanding the combat engineering battalion WES-27. After his military service he moved his family to Underhill, Vermont, where he managed personal service contracts for the Vermont Health Department. The family enjoyed rural life. They had a huge garden and raised sheep, Angora rabbits, pigs, geese, dogs, and cats. They bought milk from a neighbor, churned their own butter, and burned five cords of wood for winter heat. In his later years Geoff moved to a 160-acre farm in Lincoln, County, Oklahoma, where he spent many hours culling Eastern Cedars, an invasive species. Sons Nathan and Zachary were born with pyloric stenosis, a condition where pylorus muscles block food from entering the small intestine. Geoff and his wife spent many hours on their care, which was successful. Geoff is survived by his wife, Carolyn; sons Timothy, Nathan, and Zachary; and daughter Amanda.