The modernist work of Walter Sullivan Roche is being examined, admired, pursued, and purchased as interest in mid-century pottery grows. Twenty years after his passing, sophisticated American collectors are comparing his work to that of noted Danish ceramist Christian Poulsen and German potter Gorge Hohlt.

Roche, a Rhode Island native, was born in Newport in 1923. A member of the great generation, he served in the military during WWII. He was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design making use of his GI Bill benefits., Walter was at RISD from 1946 to 1949 earning a BFA in Industrial Design. This was a period when many GIs attended college at RISD and America's many institutions of higher learning.

Post war RISD was very exciting for Roche. The instructors that interfaced with him were extremely talented and very involved with all the students. The teachers that had a major impact on him were Dr. Lyle Perkins, a pottery legend and the head of the Ceramics Department and John Alcott who headed the Product Development Department. Both Perkins and Alcott had very successful careers at and away from RISD. Additional teachers of note at RISD at that time were Gil Franklin, Ed Scheier, and Ruth Randall. Potters Oliver Greene and Mary Drake were fellow students of Roche. Greene is the longtime owner of Peter Pots in Rhode Island.

Roche and his wife Barbara Griffin Roche left Rhode Island upon Walter's graduation in 1948. Barbara had been a design major at RISD. They moved to Indiana in 1949 where he worked an an industrial designer. He later built a pottery studio in Levitown after leaving Indiana, Zoning officials stopped his pottery production and Roche he moved to Warner, NH in 1954.

A studio was built in Warner and he began working and selling in earnest. In 1967 the Roche family purchase a home in the Waterloo section of Warner that had been previously owned by former Governor Nehamiah G. Ordway. Walter converted a large barn into a very efficient studio space. His pots were a mix of cast and thrown ware always making certain that the selected glazes used fit the form in a manner consistant with solid design tenets. Pottery sales were good and Barbara was a great help in the operation of the studio.

A major change occurred in 1968 when accepted a teaching position at Notre Dame College in New Hampshire. This was a great opportunity to share knowledge of design, clay, glazes, form and to use his special ability to energize and motivate students. Roche wanted to give back all that he had recieved during his lifetime. Prior to his tenure at Notre Dame College he did sime additional instuction at the N.H. School in Manchestor.

Always a modernist, his work should be put in the context of the era. A perfect setting for a tall Roche vase would be atop an Eames surfboard table that was next to a Paul McCobb Planner group cabinet.which in turn was in juxtaposition to a George Nelson marshmellow sofa. The house, would of course, be cantilevered with a Raymond Loewy designed 1953 Starliner Studebaker Coupe in the driveway. Roche was at home with modernism and certainly hoped that at some point in time his work in clay would be admired and appreciated.

Mary Drake, his friend and fellow student at RISD, noticed how much energy he had and his great zest for design and clay. This trait lasted a lifetime. He was an artist who engaged life always at full throttle. Walter left us much too soon. Roche died in 1979.