Roy Peardon, 86, served in Merchant Marine during WWII

Roy Peardon had a lifelong love of the water. As a teenager in Tampa, he built and sailed his own sailboat.

He became a member of the Merchant Marine, serving in World War II aboard oil tankers. After leaving the service, he went boating, fishing or rafting over rapids at every opportunity, said his wife, Betty Jo Peardon of Marietta.

“Our daughter is an only child, and before she was born, the doctor asked us whether we would like a boy or a girl,” she said. “I said I’d like a girl, and he said he wanted a boy for one reason: He needed a fishing partner.”

“We always said the good Lord compromised because we got a girl, and she was always his fishing partner,” she said.

Mr. Peardon, 86, died at his home in Marietta Thursday of a rare, late-onset genetic disease called spinocerebellar ataxia. The funeral will be 11 a.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church in Marietta. Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Peardon was born in Tampa to parents who were British citizens. When their sons were small, they moved back to England out of homesickness but returned to Florida because the climate was better for the health of their sons, who had bronchitis repeatedly, Mrs. Peardon said.

After finishing high school, Mr. Peardon entered officer candidate school for the U.S. Merchant Marine, where he attained the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. During World War II, he was an engineer on the oil tanker Gulfstream.

“They were on their way to Pearl Harbor with a full tank of aviation fuel when the Japanese attacked,” Mrs. Peardon said.

After leaving the Merchant Marine, Mr. Peardon went to work for Georgia Power as a boiler/turbine operator. He retired in 1987 after 45 years with the company.

When he had time, he went trout fishing or boating on Lake Allatoona, or he worked in his large garden. He enjoyed woodworking and made several pieces of furniture as well as birdhouses.

“He was a real outdoorsperson,” his wife said.

Other survivors are daughter Ginger Allen of Marietta and one granddaughter.