11/20/2025: Dear Friends, I am currently in chemotherapy and unable to promptly answer emails or ship orders. I will do my best to take care of your needs, but hope you can be patient. Thank you all for your support.

Roger Ellquist, an October 2025 Remembrance

Roger Ellquist, a long-time resident and cyclist of Salem, passed away Thursday morning, October 17, 2024, a year ago. He was 83 years old.

Roger rode with the Salem Bicycle Club for many years, and would drop in at South Salem Cycleworks to sit on a stool and converse about politics, Salem, the environment and the latest conspiracy theory. Sometimes once a week, sometimes as often as three times a week. His concerns were genuine, and I viewed Roger, with his tatoos and large, getting larger, gauges in his ear lobes, as a genial, soft-spoken and deliberate individual.

Roger with bike, gear & friends.

I could easily spot him riding about Salem with his baby blue Protect helmet, most likely visiting Life Source for groceries, but more likely just to have conversations with both the employees and the patrons there. He was concerned about what he ate and the water he drank, as evidenced by the juicers, grain mills and water purification systems in his second story apartment of 25 years.

I’d noticed the last year or so that Roger was no longer riding his bikes, and was walking and using the bus to get to his destinations. He called me last May, inquiring about the possibility or getting a recumbent tadpole tricycle, but wanting brochures from various manufacturers to research them. I told him that brochures were no longer produced, and only available on the internet, but as I was going to Portland, I would ask the two specialty shops there if they had any brochures left over.

Roger in my workshop.

They didn’t, but Roger didn’t answer his phone, nor did it have an answering machine. I tried several times over the following month without reaching him, and finally contacted Winnie Sangirardi, a former riding companion of Roger’s, who let me know that he’d fallen in his parking lot getting the mail and broke his hip. After the hospital did a hip replacement, he was sent to a transitional care facility. Winnie commented that Roger was losing it, but I, having had the conversation in May, attributed it to just being Roger.

I visited Roger at the facility that day, where he greeted me with ”Wolfie, what are you doing here?”, and I replied asking the same of him. He explained he’d been hit on his bicycle by an automobile . . . .to which I then said I’d heard he’d fallen in the parking lot. He denied that had happened.

I met Carla Reardon, a neighbor of his, who had handled his finances and appointments for the last year. She confirmed that his dementia had been taking over, and he had fallen in the parking lot. The collision with the car had taken place a year prior.

The social worker at the facility wanted to know whether I would assume power of attorney for Roger, because until someone was appointed, Medicaid could not assist with Roger’s expenses. I knew Roger had two sons, but she said that several people had reached out to them, and they didn’t want anything to do with Roger. I hesitated for two weeks, before accepting that task, not wanting a state-pointed attorney to deal with Roger as a number, and being paid to do so.

Ultimately, I took over as power of attorney and general manager, and I moved Roger to Hawthorne House, a memory care home in the north of Salem in mid-September. My wife and I did a drop-in prior to evaluate the facility, not wanting to place him in an institution of residents kept in beds with but few staff members to see to their needs. We were impressed, as it was like a home with 25 residents. Roger’s social worker had said that other small facilities often had 70 residents.

His apartment lease was up on October 1st, and I enlisted some friends and my wife to help unload his belongings. Removing his possessions, and donating most of them to charitable organizations, was like peeling away Roger’s life story. He had varied interests in the outdoors -- not just cycling, but hiking, XC-skiing and archery. His books, paintings and statues reflected an interest in Eastern philosophies, a search for self-enlightenment. There were the conspiracy theory books as well, and I remember Roger introducing me to the danger of “con trails” from airplanes one afternoon at the shop.

One of Roger's books

His balcony had a single chair, with a Buddha stone, a bonsai tree, a small water fountain and bird feeders for both hummingbirds and others. A galvanized trash can held the seeds and peanuts for feeding the birds and the squirrels.

Roger spent about a month at Hawthorne House before passing. I was concerned about his level of happiness there, and he said to both Karla and Winnie during a visit, that he was ready to go. I arrived to visit him one afternoon, and he was sleepy, his responses were slow to come, and I told him I was leaving to let him return to sleep. As I turned to go, he said “Wolfie, this is a good house.” And I was gratified to hear that. A few days later he passed on.

After discussing with his friends, the issue of Roger’s remains, we all agreed that Roger would have wanted to be cremated. His ashes were scattered by friends by Waldo Lake – I think he’d be pleased.

If someone has a photo of Roger riding with his baby blue helmet, please email it to South Salem Cycleworks so that we can add it to this post.

More Roger Ellquist photos:

Another of Roger's books

Here's another.

Roger in my shop in an undated photo.

Heres another photo of Roger in my workshop

In West Salem, one of Roger's friends Rene with Roger

Roger Carla and Winnie

Rene and Roger at the Lebanon speedway.