Gloria & David Bird

I am Gloria Bird and my husband David Bird is Roy’s first cousin and one of six children of Allan Bird, brother of Roy’s father,  Roy Bird.  I know that sounds confusing, but we are sometimes referred to as the “Georgia Birds.”  During WWII,  Allan married a lovely lady from German Village in Columbus, Ohio  whom  he had met at the USO (Marguerite Reisch) .  When Allan returned from the war, he and Marguerite moved to Salt Lake with their young daughter Karen and our David Bird was born on September 18, 1946, one year to the day before Roy was born on September 18, 1947.  Allan and Marguerite relocated to Ohio in 1947 and subsequently moved to the Atlanta area in 1964.  The family has been in Georgia for the last 45 years. 

For many of those years, the Georgia Birds saw very little of the Utah Birds.  David has a few memories of playing football with Roy and Glenn on a family visit to Utah, but for the most part the cousins knew little about each other’s lives.  In November, 1994, six of the Georgia Birds decided to make a trip to Utah to get to know Allan’s family better.  Roy’s parents, Roy and Glenna,welcomed us into their home and became our tour guides for about a week.  Dutch and Beth came all the way from California and we visited with Virginia and Jess at their home as well.  We met some of the cousins, including a brief meeting with Glenn and Andy at our motel (they probably don’t remember).  Of course, Roy was in Alaska at the time, but  we began to gather family stories of all the people we didn’t yet know.

After that, Roy, Glenna and Jane made a trip to Georgia and the Georgia Birds made another trip to Utah.  During this time, Jane and I started e-mailing and in a way, I started to get to know Roy in a second-hand way.  Jane often forwarded information from Roy or kept me updated on what was happening  with him.  In 1999, our oldest son Matthew was making plans to apply to doctoral programs and asked Jane if Roy would be willing to talk to him through e-mail.  Matthew later had several very helpful e-mail exchanges with Roy in which he was very supportive about the application process. Matthew never got to meet Roy but always asked about what Roy was doing.

Several years ago, Roy had occasion to be in Atlanta for a convention and we were finally able to meet him.  David and I picked him up at one of the Atlanta hotels and brought him out to Cobb County where we live.  He spent the whole afternoon with us and we later took him to another family member’s house to meet more of Birds.  He was perfectly at ease and we felt like we had known him forever.  David and Roy found that had many things in common, including The Brothers Karamazov.   Of course, we all bonded politically, which couldn’t have hurt.  We told him that we were definitely coming to Alaska before he retired so that we could get one of our last states “in.”  (In order to visit every state in the union.)  It is a huge regret that we did not get to make that trip and to visit with Roy in Fairbanks.  Last fall during the presidential election, I couldn’t wait to hear Roy’s take on “Palin.”  I was not disappointed. In April, Jane, Glenna and Roy came to Georgia to visit us.  Jane said that Roy had said he would like to come and we extended an invitation which he said he had to decline.  How much we wish that we had been able to see him then.

Although David and I did not have the close relationship with Roy that you, his family and friends have had, we loved him and felt that he was both family and friend.  For the last week, he has been on our minds and our hearts.  We wish we had been able to get to know him better.  He was a remarkable man.

{pictured: Allan "David" Bird} 

Below are David’s memories of Roy in his words:

Roy K. and I were born under the same ill-starred stars (9/18/46 - David and 9/18/47 – Roy) and the night before he died I was awake much of the night thinking about him.  I have two memories :

     (1) Playing football with Roy and Glenn under Camel Back Mountain in 1953 in Springville—I was three touchdowns ahead and playing aggressively but Virg Bird and the family came out to watch and I had to let them win.  When Roy came to visit us in Georgia while attending a convention, he had perfect recall and  remembered the football game and all the plays.  He said that they won by two touchdowns (but it was still two against one). 

      (2) My second memory was when he came to the convention in Atlanta.  He was gracious, affable and kind and had complete remembrance of things past.  During his lifetime, he advanced the “Spirit” and now he has  abandoned into the homecoming.