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Hillsdale: Greek Tragedy in America's Heartland
Explores the life and death--officially ruled a suicide--of Lissa Roche, the daughter-in-law of Hillsdale College's president, with whom she supposedly had an affair, and argues that the truth about the case has been suppresed.
- GenresNonfiction
208 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2000
27 people want to read
About the author
Roger Rapoport
47 books1 followerAs a newspaper and magazine writer and aviation specialist Roger Rapoport has written in all 50 states, 6 Canadian provinces, and 30 foreign countries. A lifelong sailor and enthusiastic kayaker, he has traveled extensively throughout the Great Lakes, along the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Atlantic Coast.
Roger Rapoport graduated with a Bachelor's of Arts in Journalism in 1968 from the University of Michigan where he was editor of The Michigan Daily.
While working on a story for Ramparts Magazine he met his first wife, Margot Lind. They had a son & daughter and later divorced in 1993.
In 1978, Rapoport began to work at California newspapers, including The San Jose Mercury-News, the San Francisco Chronicle & the Oakland Tribune.
In 1991 Rapoport went to work for Ulysses Press in Berkeley learning about the publishing business.
In 1993 he launched his own publishing effort, RDR Books in Oakland, CA and has since published more than 60 books.
Rapoport met Martha Ferriby, director of Hackley Public Library, while in Michigan in 1995. They married in 2000.
Rapoport moved to Michigan in 2004.
In 2007 RDR became a defendant in the seminal fair use case J.K. Rowling. v. RDR Books, aka The Harry Potter Lexicon Case. Rapoport and Steve Vander Ark, founder of “The Harry Potter Lexicon” website had sought to publish a book version of the Vander Ark's Potter fans' website.
Author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. claimed copyright infringement. RDR Books claimed the right to publish under the fair use doctrine.
Although RDR lost the case, Judge Robert B. Patterson Jr. awarded the plaintiffs less than $7,000 in damages for infringement, the minimum amount possible.
Judge Patterson concluded that "reference guides in general, including the Lexicon, are transformative in nature and capable of fair use protection, and that the Lexicon could be published with less appropriation from the original works. "
On January 16, 2009, RDR Books released The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials including more commentary than before the suit.
For more information see: Right to Write.
RDR Books is now closed. Most of the former RDR Book titles are now available from Ashley Creek Books.
Books written and edited by Roger Rapoport are now available from New Lake Books and Lexographic Press.
Rapoport published Steven Faulkner's Waterwalk. With Richard Harris he has since co-produced and adapted Faulkner's story for a film starring Robert Cicchini.
Roger Rapoport graduated with a Bachelor's of Arts in Journalism in 1968 from the University of Michigan where he was editor of The Michigan Daily.
While working on a story for Ramparts Magazine he met his first wife, Margot Lind. They had a son & daughter and later divorced in 1993.
In 1978, Rapoport began to work at California newspapers, including The San Jose Mercury-News, the San Francisco Chronicle & the Oakland Tribune.
In 1991 Rapoport went to work for Ulysses Press in Berkeley learning about the publishing business.
In 1993 he launched his own publishing effort, RDR Books in Oakland, CA and has since published more than 60 books.
Rapoport met Martha Ferriby, director of Hackley Public Library, while in Michigan in 1995. They married in 2000.
Rapoport moved to Michigan in 2004.
In 2007 RDR became a defendant in the seminal fair use case J.K. Rowling. v. RDR Books, aka The Harry Potter Lexicon Case. Rapoport and Steve Vander Ark, founder of “The Harry Potter Lexicon” website had sought to publish a book version of the Vander Ark's Potter fans' website.
Author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. claimed copyright infringement. RDR Books claimed the right to publish under the fair use doctrine.
Although RDR lost the case, Judge Robert B. Patterson Jr. awarded the plaintiffs less than $7,000 in damages for infringement, the minimum amount possible.
Judge Patterson concluded that "reference guides in general, including the Lexicon, are transformative in nature and capable of fair use protection, and that the Lexicon could be published with less appropriation from the original works. "
On January 16, 2009, RDR Books released The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials including more commentary than before the suit.
For more information see: Right to Write.
RDR Books is now closed. Most of the former RDR Book titles are now available from Ashley Creek Books.
Books written and edited by Roger Rapoport are now available from New Lake Books and Lexographic Press.
Rapoport published Steven Faulkner's Waterwalk. With Richard Harris he has since co-produced and adapted Faulkner's story for a film starring Robert Cicchini.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 10, 2011
The deceased's family, the police, and the college all should have publicly treated Lissa Roche's death as a homicide and investigated it with due diligence, instead it seems everyone involved is a little too willing to assume suicide.
E. Michael Jones writes: "Lissa decided to end the old life with an act of vengeance on the man and the institution which had scorned her. "
Seems to me like there's more to this story than that? There's sex, greed, money, and a cover-up (or at least a circling of the wagons), but as Michael Bauman observed about the way Lissa's purported adultery with her father-in-law was handled by the college board: " . . . they were left in the position of not doing anything. We either have a false accuser or a guilty man."
Rapoport says "There is not one single shred of evidence that Lissa Roche actually committed suicide."
In the end a sort of bizarre ambivalence about Lissa's death is what surprises about the case -it's as though NO ONE beside author Roger Rapoport (& maybe William Bennett, former US Secretary of Education) is willing to admit she could have been murdered.
And there are plenty of high profile people who could have pushed for a more thorough investigation.
As a child, I played in the Hillsdale arboretum near my aunt's home, blissfully unaware that this tiny college -once a stop on the underground railroad had become a conservative bastion that courted men like Caspar Weinberger, Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove as speakers & graduated alumni like Blackwater's Erik Prince & Steve Van Andel, chairman of Amway.
Lissa's life and the circumstances of her death have not been fully explored by the authorities or even here in Rapoport's account. Unfortunately, it is as though Rapoport was unable to "break through" to the truth in his Hillsdale and family interviews. Too bad Rapoport didn't have an assistant like Truman Capote had in Harper Lee when he was interviewing the people of Holcomb, Kansas.
The Roche family members feel very cardboard in this account -as though the author had little access to them in writing this book. The personalities and circumstances of the college administrators, board members, and police involved are not fully explored either.
The author's investigative emphasis seems rather to dwell on the easily obtained than focusing directly on those likely to have caused or known about Lissa's cause of death.
For example, though the book is photo illustrated, only a single formal portrait of Lissa Roche is featured.
George Roche III, his first wife June, along with their son George IV, and his siblings Muriel & Maggie are pictured in a posed family photo taken from before any of them knew Lissa.
I would have been far more interested to see photos of these men from the late '90s and especially to see photos of Lissa interacting with them. Instead Margaret Thatcher, Ransom Dunn, and Shavano are the only other personalities photo-illustrated (though their roles are inconsequential in this family drama).
Ultimately, Rapoport seems to have been unable to persist fruitfully in his investigation of Lissa's death. This is a story that still has too many loose ends.
If another book were to be written, it's too bad Vladimir Nabokov is not alive to write this situation up. It would be the perfect true-crime multi-generational incest drama in academe for him to take on. He could have written a book about this that would inherit the legacy of In Cold Blood had he insinuated himself into this mystery.
Since Nabokov's not available to turn over the rocks remaining here, about the only other thing that would satisfy my perverse curiosity about this case would be if the Cohen Brothers or Edgard Wright and Simon Pegg made a movie about the life and death of Lissa Roche.
For example: Maybe Lucy Punch could play Lissa, Pegg could play George IV and Timothy Dalton could play George III? It would be sort of like Hot Fuzz only set in Hillsdale? All Hillsdale's big name Shavano headliners could play themselves?
E. Michael Jones writes: "Lissa decided to end the old life with an act of vengeance on the man and the institution which had scorned her. "
Seems to me like there's more to this story than that? There's sex, greed, money, and a cover-up (or at least a circling of the wagons), but as Michael Bauman observed about the way Lissa's purported adultery with her father-in-law was handled by the college board: " . . . they were left in the position of not doing anything. We either have a false accuser or a guilty man."
Rapoport says "There is not one single shred of evidence that Lissa Roche actually committed suicide."
In the end a sort of bizarre ambivalence about Lissa's death is what surprises about the case -it's as though NO ONE beside author Roger Rapoport (& maybe William Bennett, former US Secretary of Education) is willing to admit she could have been murdered.
And there are plenty of high profile people who could have pushed for a more thorough investigation.
As a child, I played in the Hillsdale arboretum near my aunt's home, blissfully unaware that this tiny college -once a stop on the underground railroad had become a conservative bastion that courted men like Caspar Weinberger, Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove as speakers & graduated alumni like Blackwater's Erik Prince & Steve Van Andel, chairman of Amway.
Lissa's life and the circumstances of her death have not been fully explored by the authorities or even here in Rapoport's account. Unfortunately, it is as though Rapoport was unable to "break through" to the truth in his Hillsdale and family interviews. Too bad Rapoport didn't have an assistant like Truman Capote had in Harper Lee when he was interviewing the people of Holcomb, Kansas.
The Roche family members feel very cardboard in this account -as though the author had little access to them in writing this book. The personalities and circumstances of the college administrators, board members, and police involved are not fully explored either.
The author's investigative emphasis seems rather to dwell on the easily obtained than focusing directly on those likely to have caused or known about Lissa's cause of death.
For example, though the book is photo illustrated, only a single formal portrait of Lissa Roche is featured.
George Roche III, his first wife June, along with their son George IV, and his siblings Muriel & Maggie are pictured in a posed family photo taken from before any of them knew Lissa.
I would have been far more interested to see photos of these men from the late '90s and especially to see photos of Lissa interacting with them. Instead Margaret Thatcher, Ransom Dunn, and Shavano are the only other personalities photo-illustrated (though their roles are inconsequential in this family drama).
Ultimately, Rapoport seems to have been unable to persist fruitfully in his investigation of Lissa's death. This is a story that still has too many loose ends.
If another book were to be written, it's too bad Vladimir Nabokov is not alive to write this situation up. It would be the perfect true-crime multi-generational incest drama in academe for him to take on. He could have written a book about this that would inherit the legacy of In Cold Blood had he insinuated himself into this mystery.
Since Nabokov's not available to turn over the rocks remaining here, about the only other thing that would satisfy my perverse curiosity about this case would be if the Cohen Brothers or Edgard Wright and Simon Pegg made a movie about the life and death of Lissa Roche.
For example: Maybe Lucy Punch could play Lissa, Pegg could play George IV and Timothy Dalton could play George III? It would be sort of like Hot Fuzz only set in Hillsdale? All Hillsdale's big name Shavano headliners could play themselves?
June 24, 2023
nothing says family values like having an affair with your daughter in law
September 24, 2023
Rapoport, Roger. Hillsdale: Greek Tragedy in America’s Heartland. Oakland, CA: RDR Books, 2000.
My impression from having read Rapoport’s book and several things I found online is that Lissa Roche killed herself to exact revenge on George Roche III. That was June Roche’s view of it. Lissa’s sister Laura related that she considered Lissa’s death suicide.
Lissa (pronounced like Lisa) appears to have been almost compulsively controlling. A driven person, obsessed with her father-in-law, she played a critical role in the advancement of George Roche III’s career and of the fame of the college. She came to see herself as Hillsdale’s first lady.
George Roche III was a secretive person. Handsome, self-assured, and suave, he could be charming. He had another side, however. He could be mean. He brooked no disagreement. Staff and students who dared to cross him regretted it. Like Lissa, he was a workaholic.
George and June were divorced a few months before Lissa’s death. Lissa planned to divorce her husband George Roche IV. She suspected him of having an affair. For several months George III had secretly been dating someone, whom in September of 1999 he married. Lissa’s apparent descent into unreason coincides with that event. The morning of the day she died, Lissa called George III and threatened to kill herself.
My impression of George III is that he was one of those men incapable of questioning himself, and that Lissa’s devotion to him amounted to more than simply hero worship. Rather, she belonged to him in some ultimate way.
The Lissa who emerges from the pages of Rapoport’s book is an extraordinarily willful person, capable of killing herself if sufficiently motivated by rage and a desire for vengeance. Did her husband murder her? According to a police officer who was with him in the hours right after Lissa’s death, George IV seemed unaffected by it, showed little emotion.
I found the book’s digressions into the college’s history and into things literary at times frustrating. I was impatient to know what happened next.
For the reader who feels a desire to know more, I recommend Sam Tanenhaus’s article “Hillsdale College: ‘Deadly Devotion,’” published as a chapter in Vanity Fair’s Schools for Scandal (Simon & Schuster, 2017).
My impression from having read Rapoport’s book and several things I found online is that Lissa Roche killed herself to exact revenge on George Roche III. That was June Roche’s view of it. Lissa’s sister Laura related that she considered Lissa’s death suicide.
Lissa (pronounced like Lisa) appears to have been almost compulsively controlling. A driven person, obsessed with her father-in-law, she played a critical role in the advancement of George Roche III’s career and of the fame of the college. She came to see herself as Hillsdale’s first lady.
George Roche III was a secretive person. Handsome, self-assured, and suave, he could be charming. He had another side, however. He could be mean. He brooked no disagreement. Staff and students who dared to cross him regretted it. Like Lissa, he was a workaholic.
George and June were divorced a few months before Lissa’s death. Lissa planned to divorce her husband George Roche IV. She suspected him of having an affair. For several months George III had secretly been dating someone, whom in September of 1999 he married. Lissa’s apparent descent into unreason coincides with that event. The morning of the day she died, Lissa called George III and threatened to kill herself.
My impression of George III is that he was one of those men incapable of questioning himself, and that Lissa’s devotion to him amounted to more than simply hero worship. Rather, she belonged to him in some ultimate way.
The Lissa who emerges from the pages of Rapoport’s book is an extraordinarily willful person, capable of killing herself if sufficiently motivated by rage and a desire for vengeance. Did her husband murder her? According to a police officer who was with him in the hours right after Lissa’s death, George IV seemed unaffected by it, showed little emotion.
I found the book’s digressions into the college’s history and into things literary at times frustrating. I was impatient to know what happened next.
For the reader who feels a desire to know more, I recommend Sam Tanenhaus’s article “Hillsdale College: ‘Deadly Devotion,’” published as a chapter in Vanity Fair’s Schools for Scandal (Simon & Schuster, 2017).
August 19, 2020
Twenty years too late, I finally read Hillsdale: Greek Tragedy in America’s Heartland. Maybe it’s my obsession with true crime documentaries on Netflix or maybe it’s my connection to the Hillsdale community and knowing (or at least knowing of) many of the people in this book, but I could not put this book down. My politics aside, I have always admired Hillsdale College and the type of education the esteemed institution provides its students. However, this book definitely puts everything out on the table about the untimely death of the president’s daughter-in-law and his departure from the college that he worked so hard to put in the national spotlight. I appreciate that the author doesn’t force the reader to believe one way or another, yet he does bring up points on both sides to allow you to decide what you believe. It’s still a mystery to me if a bigger crime than suicide was committed, but this book definitely left me with new knowledge that I will be pining over for some time.
April 10, 2021
When we dropped off our daughter at Hillsdale College in the fall of 2011, I had know idea of the incident which is the subject of this book. Lissa Roche's death was never talked about on campus, but if you let it be known you were interested someone would show you the sites.
After reading National Review articles about Lissa's death, I was underwhelmed by the author's investigation. Although he accurately points out the deficiencies in the police probe, he never really provides any evidence that her death was anything but a tragic suicide.
In summary, this is a worthwhile read if you have connections to Hillsdale, otherwise, I am not sure I would have read it.
After reading National Review articles about Lissa's death, I was underwhelmed by the author's investigation. Although he accurately points out the deficiencies in the police probe, he never really provides any evidence that her death was anything but a tragic suicide.
In summary, this is a worthwhile read if you have connections to Hillsdale, otherwise, I am not sure I would have read it.
November 8, 2019
I remembered this shocking event from 20 or so years ago when the daughter-in-law of the Hillsdale president committed suicide on campus. Was she having an affair with her father-in-law, like she said? Roger Rapoport does a nice job trying to get answers to this and other questions (such as whether it was really a suicide), though he is often stymied in his quest for information.
January 18, 2020
Lots of unnecessary information
March 12, 2012
Interesting take on a very sad but very ironic situation in a conservative small college in southern Michigan. Knowing the people makes it doubly and triply sad as well as leaving me incredibly disappointed in the college president who posed as a moral person. As Shakespeare reminded us, power corrupts.
June 9, 2020
pretty good
August 2, 2024
Interesting report on a perplexing topic. Too many questions still unanswered…
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews