An Iowa attorney practicing law at Fort Madison, Philip F, Roan grew up in that town, was a salesman and business man until after the World war, in which he saw service overseas, and has made an excellent record in his profession. He was born at Marceline, Missouri, December 9, 1892, son of Peter F. and Mary (Fagan) Roan, both of whom were born in Iowa, his mother at Burlington. The parents live in Fort Madison. His father has spent all his active life as a railroad man, an engineer with the Santa Fe Company, and was living at Marceline on that road when his son Philip F. was born. The other children are: Leo, of Fort Worth, Texas; Mrs. Cecilia Riley, of Marceline; Mrs. Rosana Freesmeier, of Detroit, Michigan; Miss Margaret, of Fort Madison; and Peter F. Jr., of Ontario. Mr. Roan grew up at Fort Madison and attended public schools there, graduating from high school in 1914. For two years he was a salesman for the Moon Motor Car Company at Saint Louis, and during 1916 was a timekeeper for the Sante Fe Railway Company. Mr. Roan in December, 1916, enlisted with an ambulance corps for service in the French army, had training at Fountainpieau, near Paris, and was in active service eight months, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. After being released from this service he returned to America and joined the Tank Corps, being trained at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with Company A of the Three Hundred Second Battalion, with the rank of sergeant. He again went overseas, was stationed at Langres, and for six months after the armistice was in Germany. After his honorable discharge in September, 1919, entered the Detroit College of Law, which he attended three years, getting his LL. B. degree in 1924. During the summer vacations he carried on his studies at the University of Michigan, and after graduating he spent a year in the University of Detroit, where he won his Master's degree in 1925. For one year he was connected with the legal department of the Michigan Bell Telephone Company, and in 1927 returned to Fort Madison to engage in a general law practice, and has accumulated a very promising business in his profession. He is a member of the Sigma Nu Phi fraternity, the B. P. O. Elks, and was active on the school debating teams the three years he was in law college. He has served several years as chairman of the Lee County central Republican committee. Mr. Roan married, June 23, 1923, Miss Elinor Smith, of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Source: A Narrative History of The People of Iowa, Edgar Rubey Harlan, LL. B., A. M., Chicago and New York, 1931 Transcribed and contributed by: Debbie Clough Gerischer, Iowa History Project