Roland Oral Foster-Balloun, age 70, of Russell, Kansas, died May 22, 2022, in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Canada.
He was not an astronaut, but some called him Astronaut. He grew up working and managing his mother’s restaurants and always excelled in sports—a natural athlete his whole life. At 17 he joined the Navy, served 4 years, and was honorably discharged.
He opened his own restaurants and succeeded. He opened a retail camera business and succeeded. He opened a travel agency and succeeded. He went back to college in his late 30s to earn a business degree. He graduated from Tulane Law School and spent a stint as an attorney in Washington State. He worked together with his brother, Mike Balloun, in a commercial construction business. He returned to sales—cars this time—and ended up being the general manager of several dealerships. Sales in technology, business development for weight-loss clinics—whatever he did, he succeeded and grew businesses. And there were a lot of smaller endeavors in between, unfortunately, none of them took him into space.
Roland’s personality was energetic and he never stopped pursuing a vision for the future. The things he loved the most in this world were his children, his grandchildren, football, and having a good time. Throughout it all, he wrestled with God, but kept coming back to faith in Jesus Christ.
He is preceded in death by his mother Patricia Louise (Black) Balloun, his father Cecil Raymond Foster, and loving grandparents—his favorite of whom was his maternal grandmother Katheryn (Schmitt) Black, who was like a mother to him.
He is survived by his children, Trisha Deann Smith, O.Shane Balloun, Chevas Balloun, Isaac Balloun, Aimee Larsgard, and Ali Balloun, his sister Cindy Flora, his brother Mike Balloun, his sister Pam Perez, 8 grandchildren (1 in utero), a few remaining NASA astronauts and the Kansas City Chiefs.
A Funeral service will be conducted at 10:00am, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, at Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary & Monuments, 610 N. Maple, Russell, KS 67665. Condolences may be sent to Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary, who is in charge of these arrangements.