Anyone who had experienced Dr. Alice Roach in her host of capacities over the more than five decades she devoted to the field knows she was born to be an educator.
She planted seeds of creativity in the students of Carr Lane Middle School, the performing arts feeder school for Central Visual and Performing Arts High School.
“The arts invoke a passion in us that causes us to be better people, more rounded people and to be more compassionate towards others,” Roach said.
She transformed minds – and the processes of those who poured into them – as the founding principal of Carnahan High School of the Future. She created pathways for educational and professional development as administrative director of The Parsons Blewett Fund.
Roach passed away on Friday, July 11, 2025. She was 75.
“Rest well, Mommy,” Roach’s daughter Kimberly posted via Facebook. “Thy good and faithful servant, well done!”
Roach was more than a teacher, principal and administrator. She was a moral compass, guiding light and a support system to students and fellow educators who were blessed to cross her path.
“She was my principal when my mother passed away,” said Rhoda Graham, a saxophonist and mainstay on the St. Louis music scene – and graduate of Carr Lane.
Alice Faye Moore Roach was born on November 19, 1949 to Lee and Rosie Moore.
It was her father that planted the seed for her to become an educator.
“He said, ‘You know Faye, I want you to be a teacher just like Miss Dora Randall,’” Roach told The American in 2015. She was being celebrated as the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for the St. Louis American Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Scholarship and Awards Gala.
“Folks don’t realize how powerful their words are – the words of parents and teachers,” Roach said. “Those words stayed with me always.”
It was a professional goal further fueled by her guidance counselor at Beaumont High School – who encouraged Roach to attend Southeastern Missouri State University, where she received her undergraduate degree. She earned her master’s degree in guidance counseling at University of Missouri-St. Louis and her Doctorate in Education from Saint Louis University in 2005.
Building minds and lives
Roach came into SLPS as a classroom teacher. When she finally retired from there – after being called back countless times – she was chief of staff for the superintendent.
“She has given her life for the school district, and not only in the sense of just time but she gives much more than that,” then-superintendent Dr. Kelvin Adams told The American in 2015. “She gives who she is, her whole being, to making sure young people in the district are successful.”
Her leadership revealed the transformational power of education. This was evident when she was appointed the founding principal of Carnahan.
When she arrived in 2006, the attendance rate was 55% and academic test scores were in the single digits.
By the time she left in 2009, attendance was 95%, parents were highly involved and the school was meeting the state’s annual yearly progress goals.
“What she brings to the table is a real belief and high expectations of students,” said the district’s superintendent Kelvin Adams. “She believes anything is possible for our students.”
That same year, Adams handpicked Roach to be his chief of staff.
In 2013, she left SLPS to become the administrative director of the Parsons Blewett Memorial Fund. The organization assists teachers and administrators within SLPS with financial support for educational and professional development. They also provide aid to them in dire financial situations due to a health or personal crisis.
“What I know for sure is that all children deserve the very best that we can give them,” Roach said. “My philosophy has always been to treat the children as if they were my own – and to know whatever I wanted for my children, every parent wants for their children also.”
Alice is survived by her daughter Kimberly Reneè, son Brian, granddaughter Mya and godchild Jordan.
Final services for Dr. Roach are as follows:
A visitation will take place from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, July 25 and from 9 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. on Saturday, July 26 at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, 5515 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. A celebration of life will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 26, also at Friendly Temple.
Additional reporting for this story was provided by Rebecca S. Rivas.
Alice Roach has been a close friend to my husband and me for fifty plus years. We worked together to establish the New Cote Brilliante Church of God, and throughout the years, Alice always supported our family in anyway she could. Alice and I both worked for the St. Louis Public Schools and shared a many of our accomplishments. During my time as the 2003 Missouri Teacher of the Year, she served as my mentor and advisor. Our Church, and the St. Louis Community will greatly miss her leadership. The entire Chavis & Audrey Ferguson Family grieves the loss of such a beautiful woman.
Alice meant the world to me. She was instrumental in my growth as a Christian at Cote Brilliant Church of God when I turned nineteen. I love her with all my heart.
There are so many superlatives to describe this great woman of God. She was set apart to do a great work in the earth and she was on her assignment every day. She made the world a better place because of her availability to be God’s workman. Her works speak for her. I count it a privilege that I knew her. Rest in peace and power, Dr. Roach.
Mrs Roach was the best thing that could have happened to my family, she took George Roach ,Tionne Roach and Errick under her wings. The Roach family Simmons School
I loved Dr. Alice Roach. I met her soon after I moved back to St. Louis in 2001 through my work in SLPS. It didn’t take long to see that she had core values and guiding principles that she lived by. What a fine woman. May her memory be a blessing to all who knew and loved her.