Roger Lloyd Lindeken, past President of the Sunrise Rotary Club of SaddleBrooke, was born on August 30, 1942, in Oakland, California, and grew up in Walnut Creek. Like many teenagers, he had no clear idea what he wanted to do after high school. His brother-in-law, Dennis Roderick, helped by finding him a summer job in construction. Roger appreciated the paycheck, but listening to the craftsmen talk about their work left a strong impression—none of them seemed especially happy. He decided that spending the next 40 years swinging a hammer was not an appealing plan.
At the end of that summer, Roger enrolled at Diablo Valley College with no grand vision for the future. During his freshman year, he took a one-unit elective that claimed it could match students’ aptitudes with careers. He was skeptical, but the results pointed squarely toward business and accounting. Roger later said that this unlikely little class changed his life by giving him direction.
After two years at DVC, Roger transferred to San José State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in business while working for Safeway. Over the next five years, he worked as an accountant in three different industries, learning that while industries change, numbers—and deadlines—do not.
In 1970, Roger married Marsha, beginning a partnership that has lasted more than 55 years and included a remarkable amount of moving. That same year, Kaiser Aluminum asked if he would consider a three-year assignment in Jamaica. He said yes, and the couple planned a wedding and an international move in record time. Within three weeks, they were sailing from San Francisco through the Panama Canal to Montego Bay—an unconventional honeymoon by any standard.
The three years in Jamaica were memorable. Their son was born there, and their daughter was conceived there and born shortly after they returned to Walnut Creek. After Jamaica, Roger returned to Kaiser Aluminum’s corporate office in Oakland, but by then he and Marsha had caught the travel bug, and staying put no longer felt natural.
A résumé shared with a friend at the Arabian American Oil Company led to an interview in Houston, and two months later the family moved to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia—with two babies still in diapers. They spent 13 mostly good years there. The company provided American schooling through eighth grade and offered boarding school options afterward, but when the time came, Roger and Marsha decided they were not ready to send their children halfway around the world. In 1987, Roger resigned, and the family returned to the U.S., settling in Reno, Nevada. In 1984 Roger earned an MBA from the University of Oklahoma.
In Reno, Roger opened a bookkeeping and tax practice that he ran for more than 30 years. After working internationally, he found real satisfaction in helping local individuals and small businesses. In the early years, he also served as a counselor at the University of Nevada Small Business Development Center. Roger stayed busy giving back—volunteering with the University of Nevada Business Development Center, serving on the Truckee Meadows Community College Business School Advisory Board, and being an active member and officer in the Rotary club in Reno. He also spent many years on the board of Friends of the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Reno.
In 2020, Roger and Marsha built a home in the SaddleBrooke Ranch 55-plus community in Oracle, Arizona, and moved in just as the COVID pandemic began—timing that friends agreed was very “on brand.” In Arizona Roger joined the Sunrise Rotary of SaddlebBooke and was elected President in 2022. In acknowledgement of her many contributions to the club work projects and social functions, Roger’s wife Marsha was made an honorary member of the club in 2024 and was inducted into the club in 2026.
Roger and Marsha remain active, healthy, and enthusiastic travelers, always looking ahead to the next trip or gathering. In their quiet moments one can imagine them raising a glass of wine, looking into each other’s eyes and saying “what a life we have lived”.
Lake Mead's drops raise prospect of unaffordable Hoover Dam electricity
