Rollie Jr. was born July 31, 1958 in Tampa, Florida to Mary Lou and Rollie Tesh Sr. (both have passed before).  Rollie has two younger sisters, Lisa and Lori.

After Rollie's birth, the family moved back to Kansas and then to Tulsa Oklahoma, where Rollie went to school and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School (the first voluntarily integrated high school in Tulsa) in 1976.

While in Tulsa, Rollie became passionate with chess.  He played constantly and went on to achieve Masters level.

His graduation gift was a used station wagon and money because he wanted to travel the country.  I think he made it through the western half before running out of money.  He eventually went on to visit every state in the country, and many countries as well.

After high school, Rollie moved to Stillwater Oklahoma for a brief period of studies at OSU.  While in Stillwater, Rollie became very involved in a new local game craze at that time, Pente. He went on to become the Pente world champion in 1983.  During this time, Rollie and his long-time friend, Tom Braunlich (also a two-time world champion in Pente), were designing their own games.

Rollie was passionate about games, especially strategy games.  During the 80's, Rollie also went on to become the world champion in the game Megiddo, while building a game design venture with Tom.  By the 1990's, Rollie and Tom had partnered with Decipher game company to create their Star Trek and Star Wars Collectable Card Games.  The CCG games became quite popular and gave Rollie the financial freedom to pursue his other passion, travel.

For the next decade, I remember my brother living a nomadic lifestyle.  Traveling throughout the states, Central America, Mexico, and throughout Europe.  He said that living in Amsterdam was the most fun and Prague was the most beautiful.  Every time I spoke with him, he was living somewhere new.  It was hard to keep track.

By 2008, he became sick and lived with me in Dallas for about a year.  His game designing and travels slowed while he healed.  Once recovered, Rollie started designing again, and spent the past 10 years living throughout the states (Texas, Ann Arbor Michigan, Spokane Washington, Missouri, North Carolina, and lastly in Omaha Nebraska (I am sure there were more places that I missed). 

His latest interests were in the world of gameboard cafes, and recently joined the non-profit company of Spielbound in Omaha Nebraska.  His future seemed bright as he was enthusiastic about his new affiliation with Spielbound.  Unfortunately, his time was cut short before they could truly see his genius shine through.

We love you dear brother.