Roderick Roy MacElwain passed away peacefully on Sunday, January 15, 2023, following a heroic battle with cancer that defied all odds. Roderick impacted the lives of virtually every person he encountered, often profoundly. He was a giant of a man who truly led a singular, exceptional life.

Roderick was born on October 17, 1950 in Miami, Florida. Roderick had vivid childhood memories of growing up in Key Biscayne, Florida in the 1950's. Hearing his parents' stories about their military service in World War II - his mother Marjorie served as a medical assistant in the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), while his father Jack served in the Army in the European theater - instilled him with a lifelong sense of duty and patriotism, and an unflagging commitment to always do the right thing. Another of Roderick's vivid childhood memories was spending summers at his Grandmother Mamie's cabin in the boundary waters of northern Minnesota. There, Roderick developed his deep-rooted sense of life as an adventure and a lasting love of the outdoors.

Roderick's family moved to Hillsborough, California, in the San Francisco Bay area, when Roderick was still a youngster. Roderick attended Crocker Middle School in Hillsborough and what is now the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach. He graduated from the Menlo School in Atherton, where he was a member of the high school football team. Gifted with a silver tongue and never one to take "no" for an answer, after high school Roderick managed to maneuver his way onto the football team at the University of Alabama, then under the leadership of legendary coach Bear Bryant. Wisely concluding after his first season that a football career wasn't in his future, Roderick transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with a degree in history in 1972.

After graduating from Cal Berkeley, Roderick moved to New York to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a business career. Roderick lived in New York for several years. Although his future as a business leader showed great promise with his initial career success, Roderick ultimately decided to pursue his true calling in life: to love people and to explore the life of the Spirit.

Roderick underwent a powerful religious awakening in his mid-twenties. Having been raised in the Christian faith, at this stage of life his Christian faith became profoundly personal. Roderick took up the calling to "Be Like Christ", performing many acts of selfless altruism. He ultimately felt called to travel the world, to explore its people and to deepen his faith. Without money, food, a change of clothes or even a passport, and with a self-imposed rule that he would not beg or ask anyone for help, Roderick left home to see where and how far his faith, grit and wits might take him. He would often refer to his trip around the world as a formative experience, and he would share countless stories of his travels through several continents, stories which were both harrowing and heartwarming. Many of his experiences on his around-the-world journey, including several where his life was in jeopardy, seem nothing short of miraculous.

After returning from his travels, Roderick first returned to his native Florida. He later moved to Dallas, Texas in the early 1980's. During this chapter of his life as before, Roderick pursued various entrepreneurial and business endeavors. But even though he did not have particular difficulty making money, it was never Roderick's priority. Rather, it was always the people and the experiences that truly mattered. Roderick had an uncanny ability to find what he called "magic in the mundane," and he would spread his magical sense of life to all those around him.

A voracious reader with a gift for what he liked to call "pattern recognition," Roderick was conversant on virtually any topic. He was profoundly gifted at logical problem solving, yet he simultaneously possessed an intuition that would stun those around him. Roderick's gifts made him a one-of-a-kind freelance consultant. While he would consult on business matters, he would also guide and help people in virtually any facet of their lives. As always, it wasn't the promise of financial reward that made Roderick take on a particular client, but rather whether he felt a kinship with them. Indeed, Roderick more than almost anyone could not be bought. He would refuse to work with anyone if he didn't believe in the purpose they were trying to achieve or if the assignment didn't interest him.

Roderick was always known for his authenticity and non-conformity. He was a man of unique and constantly evolving interests. Whether it was pursuing his interests in dream analysis, race walking, or improvisational singing, Roderick always marched to his own drum. One of his more zany episodes was driving a taxi cab in Miami in the late 1970's. While his taxi-driving stint didn't last long, it served as yet another outlet for his fascination with human nature and for pursuing life as an adventure. Roderick was also known for his ascetic lifestyle. Driving his signature 1960's Volkswagen Beetle for many years and eschewing all luxuries, many may not have known that Roderick lived modestly by choice.

Roderick is perhaps best known locally in the Dallas area as one of "the Free Advice guys." Nearly every Sunday for over two decades, Roderick and his close friend Neal Caldwell would sit on a picnic blanket at White Rock Lake's Jackson Point with a hand-painted sign offering "Free Advice" to passers-by. Over the years, Roderick gave free advice to literally tens of thousands of people. Although most who went to Free Advice were initially strangers, many became repeat visitors. Some even became lifelong friends. Fond of saying that he would give advice on "everything from bathroom tile to relationships," Roderick found Free Advice yet another outlet for his passion to help others and to use his remarkable intellect.

Everyone who met Roderick remembered the experience. Simultaneously traditional but iconoclastic, passionate but incisive, caring but brutally honest, a conversation with Roderick was like no other. As one of his friends recently shared, it was as if Roderick understood you before you even said anything. Roderick was never afraid to say what he believed, but always did so with the intention of helping the listener. He was deeply committed to helping others achieve their highest potential in every facet of their life. He was a lover of people, able to understand and love them even when they might not understand or love themselves. Whether it was a close friend, a visitor at Free Advice, or one of the countless strangers he would strike up a conversation with literally anywhere, people always felt Roderick understood and deeply cared about them.

Roderick remained a profoundly spiritual person throughout his life. In his later years, during his battle with cancer, he fully embraced his Christian faith and more openly shared it with those around him. While he was non-denominational and had no interest in imposing his beliefs on others, Roderick would share his faith in God's Love and the Lord Jesus Christ with anyone who wanted to listen. Roderick spoke of what he called "simple Jesus" - Jesus's message of abiding, unconditional Love, as described in the gospels.

Roderick was diagnosed with late-stage cancer in April 2017. At the time of his diagnosis, his doctors told him he had approximately six months to live. Minutes after leaving the consultation where he received his diagnosis, Roderick had what he described as another of his life's major spiritual experiences when he heard a voice say, "The Season of Love is upon you - Now." For Roderick and his wife Lisa, their experience with his cancer was not so much a battle against the disease, but more an invitation to open their hearts, to love life and to love others. Despite the pain and challenge of his illness, Roderick would often say that cancer was "the best thing that ever happened to him," as it affirmed the importance of God and close relationships with family and friends.

Never one to be satisfied with conventional wisdom or to accept defeat, Roderick took on cancer in a way that was both herculean and quintessentially his own. A vegan devoted to a healthy lifestyle long before it was fashionable, Roderick pursued some conventional treatments for his illness but also used many alternative treatments. Roderick's unique approach to cancer treatment almost certainly extended his life by several years. Roderick would share his experiences with these treatments with others struggling with cancer, helping them in their own battle with the disease. Roderick's friends and family were in awe of his strength and resolve in the face of cancer, while his physicians were stunned by his remarkable survival for nearly six years following his initial diagnosis. Roderick and Lisa experienced many miracles during his fight with cancer, which helped them keep on going despite an unrelenting illness.

Roderick's final days were indeed challenging. Although cancer eventually broke his body, Roderick remained lucid until the very end, as he always hoped. Until just days before his passing, Roderick was still able to communicate with those around him in the one-of-a-kind way that only he could. At the end, the man who was born during Hurricane King - the most violent storm to hit Florida in nearly 25 years at the time - passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.

Roderick is survived by his loving wife Lisa Oglesby Rocha, sister Eva Narten, niece Michelle MacElwain Leon and great nephew Jorge Tao Leon, as well as countless spiritual family members and close friends.

The pain of Roderick's absence will be acutely felt, but we are immeasurably better for his shining example of love and kindness, his fierce integrity, and his uncompromising pursuit of truth. He was truly a giant among men.

Roderick, we will miss you profoundly, but you will truly be forever with us in our hearts. We Love You.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at St. John's Episcopal Church, 848 Harter Road, Dallas, Texas. A celebration of Roderick's life will immediately follow. In lieu of flowers, those wishing to honor Roderick's memory are encouraged to do two things: First, to do a kind, loving act for someone else. And second, to ask themselves how they can live their life in the way that is most true to their innermost self, in keeping with God's calling for them.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7. "The most important [commandment]," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:29 - 31.