Roger Eugene Long (age 75)

[Pompeii]

On Monday, April 26, 2021 Roger Eugene Long, age 75, passed away at Penn Highlands Hospital in DuBois, PA.

Born February 11, 1946 in Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia, he was the son of US Navy WWII Veteran Nathaniel Eugene “Gene” Long and Rena Jane Wilburn Long.  Roger was raised in Ohiopyle, graduating from South Union High School in 1964 where he was an honor student and lettered in baseball.

He enlisted in the US Air Force and was assigned to the K-9 Sentry Dog Air Police Squadron at Loring Air Base, Limestone, Maine, for two years following basic training.  Loring AFB was the largest base of the Air Force's Strategic Air Command and closest to the Soviet Union during the cold war. In 1966 Roger was assigned to the Tan Son Nhut Air Base in the Gia Dinh Province of South Vietnam where he proudly served his country, alongside his Sentry Dog, Happy. Upon his return to the US, he was stationed at Plattsburg Air Base, NY.

While serving in the Air Force Reserves, he went to work for Penn DOT District 12-0 in Uniontown where he would meet his wife to be, Lisbeth Ann Blue.  He entered the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in 1971, was assigned to Troop S DuBois following graduation, and studied criminal investigation and law enforcement at the DuBois Campus of Penn State University.  Roger was a member of the elite PSP Rodeo Team performing across Pennsylvania and at State Farm Shows in Harrisburg.   He also rode with the mounted police unit at many parades across the Commonwealth. Trooper Long was one of the mounted patrolmen taken into the hard-hat riots in Scranton and was sent to the Camp Hill Prison riot.  

Roger was a Life member of Vietnam Dog Handlers #1900, the Penn State Alumni Association, the Olympia Club (where he was known for making lasagna each Thanksgiving), past Trustee of the Falls Creek Eagles, DuBois American Legion, DuBois VFW, Reynoldsville Elks, Sandy Firemen’s Club and the Retired Public Employees of Pennsylvania. For several years, he coached the Falls Creek Sentries Girls Softball Team. 

Roger loved his chocolate labs and will be sorely missed by his Halie.  He was a skilled wood worker, enjoyed a good cinch game with his buddies, Penn State football, annual golf excursions and organizing the yearly Christmas party while a State Trooper.  Although Roger took his time getting to know people, once you were his friend you could have none better.  God has now taken him home to once again travel those “Country Roads of Almost Heaven, West Virginia”.    

He is survived by his wife of over fifty-one years, Lisbeth Ann Blue Long, of Harrisburg; his sister Jo Ellen Butler and her husband, Leonard, of Damascus, AK.

There will be no public visitation.

A private service will be held at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery with Centenary United Methodist Pastor Robert Ryder officiating.

Full military honors and Pennsylvania State Police honors will be accorded from the cemetery.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Baronick Funeral Home & Crematorium, Inc., DuBois, PA.

Online condolences can be sent to http://baronickfuneralhome.com/condolence