Channon Price

I first met Roy shortly after I arrived at UAF as a new faculty member. Being from opposite ends of Snow's "Two Cultures", that occasion should have been a glancing and elastic collision, a random occurrence likely never to be repeated. But rather than having nothing in common, we discovered that we had more points of intersection than do many colleagues thrown together by discipline. It was the beginning of a good friendship, one much less well explored than I now wish had been.

Those times when I met Roy -- either by circumstance or by design -- now seem in retrospect to be intervals disjoint from a more common sense of time. Some people don't have the time for an unscheduled visitor. Some people will "make time", squeezing you into their schedules, perhaps with the imputation that there will be interest due on that borrowed time. Coming to Roy's office felt like sitting on the banks of a lazy river, and dipping your feet in the slow moving water: there was all the time in the world in the 'now' that we were sharing.

As others have noted, Roy had broad and deep interests in nearly everything. Yet, he was humble about his knowledge. I never heard him speak with the voice of a savant, in order to impress the listener. Likewise, I never heard him try to dissuade another when they disagreed with him. This is one of the true marks of the highest level of intelligence: the ability to hold in equal measure things which are contradictory, and thus to respect another's opinion as much as your own.

I think that his interests stemmed from a very simple place: anything that people did or had done was interesting to him. By that interest, Roy was a keen and fair observer of humans, but I think that he had a purity that prevented him from becoming discouraged or cynical about us: he never met a person not worth loving, especially "warts and all". I like to think that Roy had to go to the dictionary each time he encountered the word 'schadenfreude'.

A friend to all, he was especially willing to demonstrate that friendship when it was most needed. Ever the defender of the underdog, no person's cause was ever insignificant to him. As others have noted, his reason was simply that it was the right course of action. And once Roy had pledged his support, he stood by that commitment, even if it was to his own disadvantage. Even there he showed rare qualities, neither martyred nor heroic: for it is part of each's person's path to pass through rain as well as to enjoy the sun.

It has been difficult to reflect on Roy during the last days. As Yelena said, I miss him so much because he will no longer be there -- as a trusted confidant, as a mentor, and as living exemplar of the truth that if you can still laugh about life, it hasn't beaten you. Sadly, we now have one fewer friend with whom to share that laughter.

As the longest serving Director of the Honors Program, Roy touched hundreds of Honors students, and I have seen firsthand in their love for him the echoes of his love for them. UAF and especially the Honors Program are suddenly diminished because of his absence. Roy understood the value and importance of a life well lived, and I think that was his greatest gift to us as a teacher and a friend. He will be deeply missed by all.