Merry Roy

Wisdom Statment - “Life is a pilgrimage, a journey, what I expect is not necessarily what I get and expectation can be the enemy of the gift. “

I was born in Milwaukee in the first wave of Baby Boomers, January 1946.

We lived for awhile in a small town near Champagne-Urbana while my dad taught at the University of Illinois, but I spent most of my growing up years in Evanston outside Chicago. My parents taught my sister, brother and I he values of living our faith and of loving our neighbors everywhere.

In high school I read John Hersey’s book Hiroshima, and our church hosted a delegation of Hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bomb. These experiences along with my parents example of peacemaking, drew me to work to end the war in Vietnam and join the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

During my junior year at Indiana University I met Joe on a train to Chicago (that’s a story in itself), and we talked about what was important to us —faith and community and working for peace. Within eleven months we were married, and he was in the Marines. I finished my Education degree by mail, and he applied to be a conscientious objector.

My first year of teaching was in Baltimore just after Martin Luther King’s assassination. Then we decided to move west, interviewing in small towns near mountains, and Wenatchee chose us. I remember standing in the street gazing at the mountains in amazement. If you wanted a view in Illinois, you stood on a dead cow, or so they said.

I taught at Wenatchee High School (the old one) for two years and twenty years at Orondo Elementary. My doctor and my dentist and many friends are former students. Our children, two born to us and three adopted, are middle aged adults now. We have 14 grandchildren and two great- grandchildren. We found a good community. We are blessed to be rooted in a place close to nature, encompassing a beautiful variety of people, and giving us opportunities to work with others to make our world better.