John R. Embow, 51, fifth-generation president of leading local roofing contractor

John R. Embow, who represented the fifth generation of his family to lead Grove Roofing Services, a prominent local industrial, commercial and institutional roofing contractor, died unexpectedly Aug. 20. He was 51.

His mother’s great-grandfather founded the business in 1870. The company’s projects have included the custom PVC roofs on the KeyBank Center and Buffalo Niagara International Airport. It won awards for its work on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin Martin House and the Erie Community College City Campus.

Born in Buffalo, the oldest of three children, John Robert Embow grew up in East Aurora and was a 1990 graduate of Canisius High School, where he was an honor student and a member of the rowing team. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University in 1994.

Mr. Embow worked from the mid-1990s to 2001 as a manager and web developer for various tech firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. Returning to Buffalo, he succeeded his father as president of Grove Roofing in 2003.

Active in numerous roofing and construction organizations, at the time of his death he was a director of the National Roofing Contractors Association and had served as its president. He also served as president of the National Roofing Legal Resource Center.

He was a former board member of National Roofing Partners and a former member of the Board of Governors of the Construction Exchange of Buffalo and Western New York.

Mr. Embow was an avid skier and competed in more than 30 beer league bicycle races in the past three years, most recently in the Buffalo Ohio Street Criterium in May.

He traveled extensively in Europe, Latin America and Asia. In 2018, he spent three weeks on a spiritual journey with a friend to Nepal and Tibet.

A supporter of the SPCA Serving Erie County, he adopted numerous cats.

Survivors include his wife, Margaret “Peggy” McCarthy, whom he married in Hawaii in 2005; a daughter, Evelyn “Evie”; a son, Elliott; his parents, Robert and Andrea Grove Embow; a brother, Jeff; and a sister, Alison Embow.

A memorial service was held Tuesday in the Bank of EA, 649 Main St., East Aurora.