Roy is passionate about his work and loves to problem-solve. Roy graduated from the University of Utah as a ceramic engineer and put his skills to use working for Battelle at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Kennewick, WA, where he lives with his wife, Joanne. During his 30th year with Battelle, he had the chance to help develop a high school class on material science. He fell in love with the course and decided to quit his job at Battelle and start teaching at Richland High. It was such a successful course that when the time came to build a new school, Southridge High, they built a lab specifically for the class. The class ended up being so popular that he started teaching other educators all over the country so they could offer the class in their own schools. Roy stated that his only regret was that he didn’t do it sooner.
Roy’s passion for the program he built is clear. He is lively and his face lights up as he talks about his students and the class. He is proud of the program and boasts that several of his students went on to pursue material science after leaving high school.
Since his retirement in 2008, Roy has enjoyed going on Road Scholar trips. He’s traveled the world with his wife attending these lecture tours, noting that his favorite tours were the small cruise tours. He’s also traveled the country training other teachers, showing them the program he’s worked so hard on, hoping that they’ll take it back to their schools with them.
Roy is excited to move to Bozeman and get out of the desert heat he lives in now. He likes to ski, and is excited to be close to the mountains and fishing. He’s ready to do a lot of fly-fishing, and hoping to get back into long walks and hikes. He commented that he’s really gotten used to the retirement lifestyle, sleeping in until 9am and having the ability to work on his projects on his own time, turning his profession into a hobby.
The lifestyle changes Bozeman Cohousing is offering makes Roy hopeful for the future. The neighborhood he lives in now is made up of strangers and it seems as though people have moved away from the friendly, community-based neighborhoods that he remembers. Cohousing communities are becoming increasingly popular around the world, which he believes is a push in the right direction.
In one word, Roy describes himself as funny. He enjoys jokes and likes to tell them and pass them on. With a laugh, he says “I’m better at remembering jokes than who I told them to.” Roy is lively, talkative, friendly, and eager to share his stories, and is looking forward to facing the new challenges of living within a community created completely by the people who live there. He hopes with this new experience, comes new problems to solve.