By Heather Lende

If Mosquito Lake musher Jim Stanford ever writes a book, John Roth will be a prominent chapter. "He would be the most interesting to write about, and I’ve known a lot of colorful characters in my life," Stanford said this week.

John Walter Roth died Friday at home of complications from diabetes. He was 70 and had lost both legs to the disease.

"He had no legs and he was bombing up and down Mosquito Lake Road in an electric wheelchair. He rode it up to 33 Mile in the middle of winter," Stanford said.

Roth’s place on Mosquito Lake Road was a work in progress, part farm, part family home, and part machine shop, with plenty of spare parts around. "He could fix anything," Stanford said. "It might not run very long, but he’d get it going."

Roth was born in Winter, Wis. on June 7, 1937 to John William Roth and Helen Sanger Roth. He attended school to the sixth grade, then worked as a laborer until the family moved to Haines when he was 17.

His parents and siblings settled at Glacier Point but Roth went his own way, joining the Navy in 1959.

Roth fished as a setnetter and gillnetter, eventually building his own boat. He also worked at the tank farm and at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, sold fireworks and operated heavy equipment.

As a young man and hunter, he befriended Duncan Gilchrist, who worked here in the timber industry and went on to become a big game guide, author, and filmmaker. Gilchrist dedicated his book "Hunt High" to his Alaskan hunting partners, including Roth. During filming of "White Fang" here in 1990, Roth worked as a bear guard, standing by the actors with a rifle.

A private pilot, Roth was on his way to Michigan in 1973 to buy an airplane when his truck broke down in Sand Point, Idaho, and he met waitress LeEtta Sarff. They married and returned to the Chilkat Valley, raising three children.

Heart problems sent Roth to a veterans’ hospital in Seattle for surgery on an artery in 1995. LeEtta said an anesthesiologist damaged his spine and left him partially paralyzed. He sued the hospital, which settled for $500,000.

The Roths lived close to the bone, hunting, fishing, canning local food and raising livestock. While her husband never had much, LeEtta said he was a generous man and loaned and gave away much of the settlement.

He did indulge in his passion for flying by buying an ultra-light aircraft and two motorized parachutes. "We called them flying lawn chairs." Daughter Laura said "they kept him from getting too depressed." Even so, he rarely flew because of his disability.

Dave Routh said Roth remained active after both his legs were gone. He powered around his muddy yard in a motorized chair. "He was ornery as heck, but he was a great guy."

In addition to LeEtta, survivors include son Rex and daughter Laura of Haines, daughter Lela Fleetwood of Girdwood; siblings Edith May Lodose of Tennessee, Loretta Lund of Juneau, Betty Lou Wilde and Robert Roth of Haines, and Pat Roth of Montana; seven grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.