Joseph Roy

Wisdom Statement -

“Love and fear are important teachers calling us home.”

Joseph Roy. 1/30/2025

I was born in the farm country of Kankakee, Illinois, to older parents. My father served as a corpsman in France during WWI, and my mother studied classical singing in Chicago. Following the war my father and his brother opened a radiology-medical lab in town. My mother was disabled in a medical experiment that burned the skin off both her feet. As a boy I helped in her care. My older brother was away in WWII. My schooling was with Catholic nuns and priests, and I was an active altar boy. As a kid and teen I was interested in biology and physics applied to growing mold and fungus, sports, and girls as well as risk-taking experiments with explosives and neighborhood adventures. Our large extended family had weekly parties, my father playing jazz violin, uncles and aunts playing big band instruments, and my mother singing.

My undergraduate studies were at Loyola University in Chicago followed by the Marine Corps, Antioch Masters in Education, Boston University ThM in Pastoral Counseling, and the Union Institute PhD in Counseling Psychology.

My wife and I met in a mid-western blizzard and were married eleven months later. We both dreamed of having lots of children, but settled for five, two by birth and three by adoption. Now we have fourteen grandchildren.

For over 40 years I’ve worked in education and counseling. I taught high school, worked with Outward Bound, have been a college dean at WVC, and finally I had a counseling and consulting practice focused on marriage, family and treatment of chronic pain and trauma. The trauma work took me to a variety of national and international sites. Throughout these years I was involved in various ministries, seeking to follow God’s leading in peacemaking and social justice, hospice chaplaincy, cancer care, andconservation efforts. My personal interests include music, hiking, fly fishing, photography and travel with friends and family.