As a captain and chaplain in the Canadian Army during World War II, Dixon Rollit inspired the men headed for the front lines by playing and singing the songs and hymns they learned as young men.
"My father, who landed in Normandy on D-Day and was later wounded during the heavy fighting around Antwerp in Belgium, had a piano mounted on the back of a truck," said his daughter, Julia Shumway. "He'd stop along the way and play songs and encourage the young soldiers to sing the hymns as they gathered around the truck. He felt the singing and playing helped their morale."
The Very Rev. A. Dixon Rollit, former dean of Trinity (Episcopal) Cathedral, Downtown, died from natural causes on Tuesday, April 2, 2002, in Westlake, Ohio. He was 89.
"Dad spent time in an Army hospital," his daughter said, "but it never deterred him from returning to an active ministry. My father was a fourth-generation Rollit to be ordained in the Episcopal Church. His great-grandfather was ordained in 1845. It was my father's calling from the time he was a young boy."
Born in Ottawa, Canada, Archibald Dixon Rollit was one of 10 children in the family of the Rev. Charles Dixon Gore and Bertha Cornelia Hall Rollit. He and his siblings were raised in Rouen, Quebec, where his father ministered to the miners.
Following graduation from McGill University in Montreal and the Bishop's University of Lennoxville, Quebec, he was ordained a deacon in 1935 and a priest a year later. In 1937, he married Roona McKinnon, of Winnipeg, whom he had met at McGill.
While attending McGill, Rev. Rollit was a four-year letterman who excelled in football, wrestling, boxing and track, and who in later years enjoyed wrestling with his 6-foot, 5-inch son.
Mrs. Rollit participated in track and field and won many awards for the high jump. During the years she spent in Pittsburgh, Mrs. Rollit was admired for her musical and artistic talent, and for being a woman who enjoyed raising her children, supporting her husband in his ministry and being the perfect hostess. She died in 1990.
Returning to Canada after his discharge, Rev. Rollit found few openings for an Episcopalian clergyman. In 1945, he brought his family to the United States, where he became an assistant at St. Thomas Church in New York City.
In the ensuing years, Rev. Rollit moved to Pittsburgh, where he served as assistant rector to Calvary Church in East Liberty, St. Stephen's in Wilkinsburg, and Church of the Ascension in Oakland. In 1964, he was elevated to dean of Trinity Cathedral.
Torrence Hunt Sr. a retired Alcoa executive and the grandson of the founder of Alcoa, recalled Rev. Rollit as a man who had a big heart.
"Dean Rollit was an excellent speaker," Hunt said. "His speech was Canadian, laced with a crisp British accent."
Following in the footsteps of the Very Rev. N.R.H. Moor was a formidable task. But during the 14 years that Rev. Rollit was the dean of the cathedral, he helped make Trinity a church home for some 40 civic and nonprofit organizations — including Parents Anonymous, a group dealing with child abuse.
He also established the weekly luncheon prayer service and the Cathedral Bookstore. Mid Paulus, a volunteer, who at one time supervised the lunch room at Trinity, said Rev. Rollit was a hard-working clergyman who had a good rapport with all the groups at the Cathedral. Her husband, John Paulus, a retired Allegheny International executive, considered the dean as not only being a dynamic preacher, but a scholarly one.
When he could get time off, Rev. Rollit enjoyed attending Pirates games, both at Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium, and watching his former choir member, Dick Groat, play.
Groat, who played shortstop for the Pirates from 1952-62, was raised in Swissvale and was a member of the choir at St. Stephen's Church in Wilkinsburg, when Rev. Rollit was pastor.
"Dean Rollit had a great rapport with the young people at St. Stephen's," Groat said. "I can still remember the time I spent with Dean Rollit before I left for the Army.
"The Korean War was still going on and I had concerns as I was preparing to leave. The dean took time to counsel me, as he did with many young people in our parish."
The Very Rev. George L.W. Werner, who succeeded Rev. Rollit, referred to a statement made by the late Bishop Robert Appleyard, when the bishop said, "If I or a loved one ever became seriously ill, and had to be rushed to a hospital, I'd want Dixon Rollit to be the priest that accompanied me."
Rev. Rollit is survived by his daughters, Julia Shumway of Westlake, Ohio, and Sheila Tetler of Worcester, Mass.; 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. He also was the father of the late Adrianne Sanders and Charles Ivan Rollit.
A memorial service with the family will be held at 2 p.m. April 14 at Trinity Cathedral, Sixth Street, Downtown.
