Samuel Roosevelt Gehr, a former funeral director and retired machinist, died of respiratory failure Wednesday at Continuum Care in Sykesville. He was 95.

Mr. Gehr, a longtime Lochearn resident, was born and raised in Waynesboro, Pa. He graduated twice from high school, in 1925 from Washington Township High School, and in 1928 from Waynesboro High School. His father was unhappy with the education Mr. Gehr received in Washington Township and insisted he take classes at Waynesboro.

He was a 1933 graduate of the Cincinnati College of Embalming and worked at funeral homes in Waynesboro and Reading, Pa., before coming to Baltimore during World War II.

Mr. Gehr was a funeral director for William J. Tickner & Sons Inc. Funeral Home on West North Avenue, before leaving to work as a machinist at Crown, Cork & Seal Co. At the time of his retirement in the 1970s, he was a machinist for CGR Medical Corp. in the 2500 block of Wilkens Ave.

He was a member of Mount Olive United Methodist Church in Randallstown, and was a master Mason with Liberty Lodge 219 A.F. & A.M.

Mr. Gehr was married in 1935 to Isabelle Martin, who died in 1976.

His hobbies included woodworking, gardening and breeding and racing pigeons.

Services were private.

Mr. Gehr is survived by three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His son, Samuel M. Gehr, died in 1999.