Roger Allen Bartosh   January 20, 1931 - July 27, 2008   Roger Bartosh passed away peacefully of renal failure on July 27, 2008 at his home in Coto de Caza, California, at the age of 77. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Connie (Coyle), his son Blake and his wife Carollynn (Wolff), his daughter Wendy and her husband John Bergquist, his sister Barbara DeRoo, and his grandchildren.   Roger was born and raised in Los Angeles.  His parents were Harry and Louise Bartosh. He attended John Burroughs Junior High and Los Angeles High School. He received his BS in 1953 and his MBA in 1965 both from UCLA. Roger served in the Korean War as an Army Staff Sergeant and Cryptographer, stationed in Korea. After the war, Roger began his career as an accountant working for his father at Hoffman Candy Company in Los Angeles. In 1956 he married Connie Coyle, and began a family.   He served as VP of Administration and Real Estate for Great Southwest Corporation.  Roger's greatest contribution to the Southern California community was his involvement with the development of Coto de Caza, a 5,000 acre ranch nestled in the hills of Trabuco Canyon, California where he was the VP of Real Estate Development. He and Connie built one of the first four homes at Coto, where they have lived for 32 years. In 2000, he was honored for his contributions by being named Grand Marshal of Coto’s 4th of July Parade. In recent years he wrote about the history of Coto for the Trabuco Canyon News.   Roger and Connie cheered on the UCLA Bruins at football games for over 50 years. For over twenty years they traveled the world together, their photos a chronicle of house cats they fondly met in each country almost as much as the monuments they saw. Roger loved his family, friends, Catalina Island, UCLA, “March Madness,” all birds and animals, his many Apple computers (he was an early adapter of all things technical), candy (particularly chocolate and salt water taffy), reading, baking bread from his famous sourdough starter with roots back to the Yukon in 1849, and was a notoriously good waffle and French omelette maker. An avid genealogist, he spent countless hours researching and assembling the family’s roots. Last year, in the face of his disabling illness, he was still open to learning and began to speak Spanish with his caregivers.   Roger & Catalina   In the summer of 1946, as a boy of 15, Roger fell in love with Catalina while vacationing there with his parents. That summer he got a job as a busboy working for Tiny Piper at his cafeteria and setting pins at the local bowling alley.  He returned every summer to work until he graduated from college. For six summers (1947-1952) he worked for Lloyd Butts at Lloyds of Avalon, starting as a kitchen worker with Albert "Bones" Hebner, slicing tomatoes and flipping burgers, and graduating to Lloyds counter staff. He also adventurously became a "native" coin diver, catching or diving for money thrown by the passengers of the "Avalon" and "Catalina" steamers into the cold Avalon harbor waters.   Roger took his own young family to Catalina in the ‘60s for summer vacations, and in the ‘90s he and his adult son Blake began an annual father-son weekend trip to the island. He loved going back to Lloyds to buy candy and watch the taffy puller in action, having waffles at Sally's and chile rellenos at Mi Casita, and spending hours in the Casino Museum. He could always count on the friendly and generous locals to share common memories of the people, places events that made Catalina such a love for him.   We will miss you, Roger!   In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the American Cancer Society, the Humane Society of the United States, or the Catalina Island Museum.