Robbin Moore McGrath
Robbin Moore McGrath (nee Melchiorre, Del Nagro) died peacefully at her home on Monday, March 18 after living in the shadow of cancer for the past year.
Robbin was born in Joplin, Missouri on March 26, 1950 to Margie and Robert Gomer (deceased).
Robbin graduated with a BA degree in Performing Arts from The University of Toledo, and a Master’s of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. She attended the Doctoral Program in Pastoral Counseling at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California. Prior to her present marriage, she was married to Charles Moore II (deceased), Joe Melchiorre of Lewes, Delaware, and Peter Del Nagro of San Diego, California.
In 1978 Robbin learned to fly small airplanes and received her pilot’s license and instrument rating. She owned a plane from that time on until 2005 and was a member of the 99’s - an International Organization of Women Pilots who promoted aviation for women and had a lot of fun in addition. She lived at Eagle Crest, a residential flying community in Lewes, Delaware. After graduating with her undergraduate degree Robbin began a 30-year career in medical sales, working for companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Baxter, and Zimmer Orthopedics. She worked for Zimmer selling prosthesis for total hip and knee replacement to doctors in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland for 15 years.
In 2004 she began her pursuit of a lifelong desire to become an Anglican Priest, being ordained in 2016 in the Diocese of Western Mexico. She served six years as the priest of St. Andrew’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Riberas del Pilar. In 2012 she was ordained a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Eastminster Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church USA and served Edinburg United Church of Christ in Ravenna, Ohio and Poland Presbyterian Church in Poland, Ohio. She also served as a chaplain at the National Institutes of Health, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, and Suburban Hospital in Montgomery County, Maryland. She retired from active ministry December 31, 2022.
Robbin was kind, generous, and hospitable. She loved to entertain in her home and was a great cook. Her friends were important to her and always welcome. She also loved flowers, especially roses and gardenias, and belonged to the Orchid Club.
Robbin moved to Mexico in 2016 and loved living in Ajijic. She loved singing, both choral and solo and sang jazz and blues in the style of Diana Krall. She also loved playing card and board games, especially bridge, and was a member of the Lake Chapala Duplicate Bridge Club. Robbin also leaves behind four good friends; Kathie Cunningham, Barbara Clippinger, Gayla Burnett, and Leslie Kingsbury. The love of her life is her husband, Michael McGrath with whom she has shared many past lifetimes and looks forward to sharing many future lifetimes. She wore Shalimar perfume.
She leaves one brother, Mark Gomer of Toledo, Ohio, husband Michael McGrath, and five grandchildren - Madeleine Moore, Bernice Bethke, Andrew, Dylan, and Taylor Campbell, all of Montgomery County, Maryland. Her daughter, Stacy Moore, preceded her in death in 2017.
A service of the Celebration of Life was held at St. Andrew’s Anglican Episcopal Church on Wednesday, April 3.
Rene Arthur Wolf
Rene Arthur Wolf died on March 24 at his home in Ajijic, a few months shy of his 100th birthday.
Born July 30, 1924 and raised in Needles, California, Rene was the only child of Marie, a French World War I bride and Arthur Wolf, a locomotive engineer who had served earlier with Capt. Pershing in the Philippines.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944, and was sent to Stanford to study engineering. He prepped at Amherst and won a competitive appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1946.
Upon graduation in 1950 as a civil engineer, he was assigned to the 1st ECBn in Germany. There he met his first wife, Charlotte, and they were married in Paris. They had two children, Chris and Michele. After two tours in South Korea, a tour in Japan, and another tour in Turkey, he retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1971 to become the head of facilities planning and engineering at Martin Marietta Aerospace in Denver, Colorado. He became an attorney after passing the Tennessee Bar in 1984.
In 1992, Rene and Charlotte purchased a 16th-century former convent in Ajijic, in which they made their home. After Charlotte passed away in 2000, he was reintroduced to Mary, whom he had previously met in Memphis, Tennessee. They got together in 2004 and were married in 2006 beside a mountain stream in Eagle, Colorado. They too made their home in Ajijic.
Rene loved to dance, play tennis and bridge, and was very socially active. He had a splendid sense of humor, and laughed often. He hated bias, prejudice and meanness.
He leaves behind his beloved wife Mary, his son Chris and his wife Lise, their two daughters Eleonor and Elyssa, as well as his daughter Michele and her husband Daniel, his stepdaughter Anna and her husband Jim. A gathering to celebrate his life is being planned.
Leslie K. Rogers
Leslie K. Rogers, 73, of Ajijic, died Wednesday, March 20, of metastatic endometrial cancer at Vanderbilt University Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee. She had been a Lakeside resident for just over five years.
Leslie was born October 16, 1950, in New York City, the daughter of Charles and Joan Kapros. She earned a bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition from Incarnate Word College in San Antonio, Texas. Leslie was a registered dietitian and worked almost 30 years for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, retiring in 2007 as a hospital inspector with the Office of Inspector General.
Leslie was active in the Culinary Arts Society of Ajijic and was a volunteer with Days for Girls. She was a member of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, serving on the Social & Hospitality Committee. She also chaired a search committee seeking a new rector for the church and served on a committee to rewrite church bylaws. She also served on the Social Committee for Condominio Riviera Alta, where she lived with her husband Mike.
Before retiring to Mexico, Leslie was a member of Grace United Methodist Church in Naperville, Illinois. She chaired the church’s adult education committee and began a Thursday morning Bible study at Grace that continues to meet weekly to this day. Leslie was one of a handful of laypeople to complete the two-year curriculum of the Academy for Spiritual Formation, a program developed by the United Methodist Church.
She was married to Mike for 31 years. She is also survived by a daughter from her first marriage, Stephanie Rolewicz of Nashville; and two sisters, Laura Kierig and husband Paul of Tower Lakes, Illinois, and Cathy Danis and husband Wayne of Dunedin, Florida.
Leslie was an avid traveler, especially to European countries. She was known for her radiant smile, hearty laugh and never-ending care for others.
If you would like to honor Leslie’s life, the family asks you to go to give.vanderbilthealth.org. To answer the question, “What would you like your donation to support?” select, “Greatest needs at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.”
There will be a Celebration of Life service for Leslie at 2 p.m., Saturday, May 11, at the Condominio Riviera Alta clubhouse, Lázaro Cardenas 200, Ajijic.