Roland Earl Sodowsky

Roland E. Sodowsky
March 17, 1938 - August 1, 2025.
A life well-lived.
He was useful. He made a difference.

Ask anyone from Cheyenne Valley School in Oklahoma, and they'll tell you Roland E. Sodowsky was one of the good guys. Born in 1938 to loving parents, Pauline and Willard Sodowsky, author and educator, Roland Sodowsky grew up on the family homestead in Major County, Oklahoma. Tough, smart, hardworking, "useful" and adventurous, he'd live, write, study and work in Oklahoma; Kansas; Calibar, Nigeria; Mainz, Germany; Texas; Missouri; and London, always returning to the family land-happy with a fishing pole in hand, hiking the hills around the ranch, or watching each night for the pinks and oranges to appear in the sunset, almost always enjoyed with his brother Tom. Alternately, he'd stubbornly tend to the same wild "rancho," working to repair the barn roof, walking the fence line, and in his words "engaging in a continuing battle with the mesquites and cedars." The imagery and memory of his life in Cheyenne Valley, Texas, Nigeria, and Pittsburg live on in the legacy of his fiction and poetry. He loved the land as he loved his family, art, and the company of friends.
Roland Sodowsky's careers were various. As a student at Oklahoma State, he worked as a writer, photographer, and printer for The Daily O'Collegian, and served as President of the then largest-in-the-country College Democrats. In this role, he met and spent an evening with President Harry Truman. In his jobs and careers, he washed dishes, cleaned chicken houses, drove tractors, repaired presses and canning equipment, published three small Oklahoma papers at one time (The Perkins Journal, Glencoe's Tri-County Hopper, and The Yale Record), and ultimately, while continuing to write both scholarly, pedagogical, and creative work, shared his passion for language and storytelling with students at Oklahoma State, U-T Austin, the University of Calabar in Nigeria, Sul Ross State University, and Missouri State University. His subject areas were wide ranging including linguistics, British and American literatures over centuries, and creative writing. Many of his students became published authors. An award-winning author of fiction and poetry, National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Yaddo Artist, GE Award Winner, and Fulbright Scholar, he was also inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his book Interim in the Desert. Having earned three degrees, including a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University, Roland continued his father's legacy as a 'Poke. When on Fulbright studying Old High German, he used the opportunity to explore with his young family the European continent via a Volkswagen bus, that VW perhaps later re-imagined in his AWP Award-winning collection Things We Lose.
Roland met his wife, Laura Lee Washburn, when they both worked at MSU, then followed her to Pittsburg, KS, where along with their national and world-wide travels, they became active members of the Pittsburg community; often seen at house concerts, poetry readings, rallies and protests, or sharing meals with friends at Toast or Starbucks. He continued to publish poetry throughout his retirement, and enjoyed membership in several writing groups, including the prestigious Jefferson Street Writer's for more than a decade. Throughout his life, he was a fierce game player of Chinese Checkers, Scrabble, and Rook (Sodowsky family rules). He noodled for catfish. He leaned out of an airplane window to get the best shot of a football field while reporting. He swam with wild dolphins near Kaikoura, New Zealand. The red dirt, gypsum hills of western Oklahoma and the coal veins in southeast Kansas bookended Roland E. Sodowsky's wide-ranging life's journey. Roland passed peacefully on Friday, August 1, 2025 surrounded by family.

He lived life to the fullest and inspires generations. Roland E. Sodowsky is survived by his loving spouse and companion of over thirty years, Laura Lee Washburn of Pittsburg, KS; his children Christi Roach (Steve) and Stet Sodowsky (Tracy) of Stillwater; 9 grandchildren and spouses; 19 great-grandchildren; his brother W.T. "Tom" Sodowsky, Jr. (Candy) of Franktown, CO; his brother-in-law Donald J. Washburn, Jr. (Amy) and mother-in-law Barbara Lucas of Knotts Island, NC and Virginia Beach, VA; nieces, and nephew, and numerous extended family members and great friends. He was predeceased by his parents, his youngest brother Melvin Sodowsky, and his father-in- law Donald J. Washburn, Sr. Roland E. Sodowsky will rest with his parents and brother in the Sodowsky family plot at Lone Star Cemetery, Major County, Oklahoma.

The memorial service honoring Roland E. Sodowsky's life and will be held at Brenner Mortuary, 114 E. 4th St, Pittsburg KS on Thursday, August 7 at 3:30 p.m. Attendees are invited to gather at Laura and Roland's home for potluck afterwards. Internment will take place at Lone Star Cemetery on Saturday, August 9 at 2:00 p.m. Flowers celebrating Roland are welcome to the mortuary. Memorials with honorariums can be made in support of the Lone Star Cemetery Care Fund (402 N. 12th, Fairview, OK 73737) or the Cheyenne Valley Community Foundation (P.O. Box. 572, Fairview, Oklahoma, 73737).

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