John Rohwer was all about health -- in the classroom, on the athletic fields and in the books and articles he wrote.

Chairman of the Department of Health and Human Performance at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Rohwer authored numerous health articles and textbooks, and he was the recipient of a dozen grants for research projects. From 2006 to 2008, he served as the lead researcher on a $3 million federal grant project aimed at boosting physical activity among St. Paul elementary school children. Early in his career, he was a soccer, wrestling and track coach.

Rohwer, 64, died on Christmas Day from injuries suffered the day before after he fell from his Shoreview roof while shoveling snow. Born in Aberdeen, S.D., Rohwer grew up on a farm. He earned his bachelor's degree in health and physical education from Concordia College in River Forest, Ill., his master's from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo.

Rohwer's wife, Marletta, said her husband was dedicated to improving the health of students.

"He wanted to help kids choose a healthy lifestyle so they would have a better life," she said.

"He was very passionate about the importance of health education in [grades] K-12," said Marisa Kelly, dean of the College of Arts and Science at St. Thomas. "He was very focused on what you could do to promote health habits that students could take into adulthood."

Kelly said Rohwer was hired away from Bethel University, in Arden Hills, where he had taught in the health and physical education department for 22 years. Kelly said he was brought to St. Thomas to add some heft to a health and human performance department that was small and which university officials wanted to expand. Much of what he did, said Kelly, involved teaching future teachers how to teach about health.

Bob Wandberg, a Twin Cities educator who co-authored three textbooks in the past seven years with Rohwer, said research was Rohwer's strong point.

"He's the one who could dig out the facts and figures and the citations for so much of the work we have done together," Wandberg said. "He was an amazing researcher."

He also was a walker, a runner and a fisherman, said Marletta Rohwer. He was also good at having fun.

"Our personal life involved hunting and fishing and going to movies and going to dinner," Wandberg said. "Just a couple of days ago, John and I had lunch together. We could crack each other up with one sentence. We knew where each other's funny bone was."

Funeral services for Rohw- er were held Wednesday at King of Kings Lutheran Church in Roseville.

In addition to his wife, Rohwer is survived by his mother, Annabeth Rohwer, of Groton, S.D.; sons Brant, of Stillwater, and Jared, of Shoreview; and sisters Joan Weismantel, of Dallas, Judy Windorski, of Braham, Minn., and Janet Harder, of Groton, S.D.

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547