 After his playing career, he worked for the Allegany County, Maryland Detention Center, and served as an assistant baseball coach at Potomac State College from 1996 to 1998 in West Virginia.On January 9, 2009, Roberts died of lung cancer that he developed from asbestos exposure as a young man at his home in Short Gap, West Virginia at the age of 64.He is buried at Frostburg Memorial Cemetery, not far from Lefty Grove's grave.