Eric M. Roher was legal pioneer, beloved temple leader
Whether pursuing a legal case, leading his beloved Holy Blossom Temple, or charting a new corner of the globe, Eric M. Roher poured the same restless curiosity and care into every part of his life.
Roher, a senior partner at Borden Ladner Gervais and leading figure in education law, died in Toronto on April 23, 2026, after a battle with cancer, at 71, his family said. A third‑generation member and, at the time of his death, president of Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto’s historic Reform synagogue, Roher was remembered in law offices, classrooms, and pews, as a man whose professional excellence was matched by enthusiasm for community life.
“Eric was the kind of guy who would talk to anybody,” said Vernon Shaw, who remembers neighbourly nightly dog walks that evolved into a three-decade deep friendship. “If we bumped into 10 other people during the walk, he would talk to nine of them.”
They lunched weekly at a local Italian restaurant; staff quickly learned Roher’s name, and kept his favourite table by the window reserved.
“He was simply everywhere — a huge presence in our community,” Shaw said. “Eric sought no tributes, no acknowledgements, no reciprocation. He simply lived with quiet generosity.” Clients confided in Shaw that Roher was an “absolute delight” to work with: incisive yet fair-minded, seeking to understand every perspective, and devoted to forging settlements everyone could live with.
Professionally, Roher helped shape a field that barely existed when he started out: he became one of Canada’s leading experts in education law, building a practice that advised school boards and independent schools across Ontario and beyond on labour relations, employment, and governance, according to colleague Robert Weir. He taught education law at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law for 18 years, and co‑created the course there.
Roher practised law for nearly four decades at what is now Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG), one of Canada’s largest national firms, where he led the Education Law group. Weir, who worked with him from the mid‑1990s until Roher’s retirement from the firm in 2021, said “he was passionate about what he did so he could make education better for people.”
He became the trusted adviser to many school boards and independent schools, Weir said, guiding them through issues ranging from bullying and harassment, to human rights accommodations, and legal complexities that surfaced during COVID‑19.
Weir said Roher conducted “endless” professional‑development sessions for teachers and principals, pushing systems to treat students facing discipline “not as criminals, but as young people who had made mistakes, and were still there to be educated.” Roher was also author or co‑author of five books, including leading texts such as “An Educator’s Guide to the Role of the Principal.”
“All his clients called him the guru,” Weir recalled. “They relied so heavily on him.” Weir credits Roher with helping drive the shift from fragmented, board‑by‑board labour negotiations to centralized, province‑wide bargaining for teachers, arguing that Roher’s advocacy helped make the system more stable and coherent.
If Bay Street was his professional stage, Holy Blossom Temple was where Roher’s Jewish life unfolded, from childhood onward. The Roher name is stamped into the building itself, through the Roher Library and a Roher family stained‑glass window; he grew up attending religious school there, was wed there, and remained an active lay leader for decades.
He served for years on the board before being elected president in November 2024, a role he often described as among the greatest honours of his life, his family said. Rabbi Yael Splansky called his leadership a “sacred partnership,” noting that he acted as the congregation’s “greatest cheerleader,” leading the board with good humour and encouragement.
In his role as a regular gabbai on Shabbat mornings — the “stage manager” for the service — Splansky remembers looking over at the podium, and finding Roher so swept up in the melodies that he occasionally missed a cue, moments that only deepened her admiration for what she described as his “prayerful spirit.”
As president, he made a habit of walking through each office in the building to greet staff members by name, according to Splansky.
In 2026, as his illness became known, Holy Blossom dedicated a concert medley in his honour, and online described him as a “beloved president” whose life was “woven into the very fabric” of the congregation.
Giving back has been a common thread — he lent his time to the local Liberal Party Electoral District Association when living in the Annex in the 1990s, at one point serving as its president. He volunteered for Carolyn Bennett’s federal election, as well as, more recently, Leslie Church’s, as her campaign fundraiser.
Roher was described by friends and family as an energetic adventurer who never lost his curiosity. He met his future wife, Beth, in the late 1970s in Hay River, Northwest Territories, while working summers on barges along the Mackenzie River — a bearded young “barge rat,” according to daughter Jessica.
Their paths crossed again at a wedding on the shore of Great Slave Lake, and later, improbably, in Paris, where both ended up living for a time; two Torontonians finding each other abroad, they turned a chance housing arrangement into a first date and, eventually, a marriage. Together, they built a life steeped in travel.
The family paddled northern rivers, and explored the world with kids in tow, riding camels in the Sahara, watching the sunset on the Ganges, hiking in Patagonia, visiting Machu Picchu and swimming with turtles in the Galápagos.
At their cottage on Muldrew Lake, Roher’s love of the water extended to a temperamental 17‑foot motorboat that stalled so often, he became a familiar figure being towed home by strangers, or paddling back at dusk, his daughter Jessica recalled, adding that his positive and adventurous spirit would not let him abandon either the boat, or the chance to meet someone new.
With his grandchildren, that same spirit translated into hands‑on play: he volunteered as an instructor at his granddaughter Eva’s canoe camp and, at 71, was out on the raft trying to sink it, surrounded by shrieking children scrambling to stay aboard, while other adults watched from shore.
“He never, ever stopped,” Weir said, noting that while fellow travellers napped after a day of hiking up a Guatemalan volcano, Roher went out to explore one more corner.
Jessica shared a story she calls a quintessential Eric moment, from the late ‘70s: spotting a back door to Buckingham Palace propped open for a furniture delivery, he simply walked in and wandered the halls until Scotland Yard politely escorted him out. “When given an open door opportunity, he just walked through the door,” she said.
He was the son of Lila and the late Douglas Roher and is survived by his wife, Beth; daughters Jessica, Rebecca and Sophie; two grandchildren; and four siblings.
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