Kiwi Roy

Teacher Roy was not one of the teachers in the initial group hired in 1999 but I wanted to move him up the list, as he was the first real teacher to grace our staff.

Roy was a retired Head Master from New Zealand. Not sure but he was probably in his mid 50's, tall and lankly like Ichabod Crane. He often needed a haircut, loved hot spicy Thai food and was truly a nice guy. His retirement plan was to travel throughout Asia while teaching. His goal was to work in each country for a year or two and then move on. Thailand was his first stop in this plan and he arrived here with wife Sharon and youngest daughter Megan in tow.

Roy taught grade six and served as our Head Teacher for a while during one of the all to frequent absences of our beloved “foreign teacher coordinator” back to the U.S. Roy’s teaching style was straightforward and disruptions did not ruffle his feathers. He told his students daily that he was there to teach whether you listen is up to you. If you are not interested in learning English just move to the back of the classroom and keep you mouth shut. Soon all his students go the message and took part in his lessons.

While I can in a joking way find quirks in most people, there were few with Roy. About the strangest thing that he did was to go out on paydays and buy all his groceries for the entire month and referred to his evening meal as tea. I remember that his shopping list always included one big bottle of beer for each day of the month. Also if I recall correctly he at times needed two taxies to return all his purchases to his condo.

Roy was with us, if memory serves me correctly, for just about a year. He began having some medical problems, went for an examination where it was discovered that he had colon cancer. Within weeks after that, he and his family moved back to New Zealand so that he could take advantage of his governments medical benefits and fight the cancer. Sadly he lost that fight and passed away not long after that.

Just before he left I asked him what was one thing about going home was he most looking forward to. His reply “drinking cool clean water right from the tap”. That’s just about as basic a need as a man should have.

Roy was a good man and is still talked about in the Teachers Lounge.