Mr. Hubert E. Roy, a longtime resident of Severna Park, died at Anne Arundel Medical Center on September 29, 2014, following complications from surgery. He was 89.
He was born in Huntington Park, CA and raised in Hawthorne and Inglewood, CA, all in the Los Angeles area. Five months after Pearl Harbor, he graduated high school and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He was sent to radio school in Madison, WI, where he graduated first in his class. He then served in the Pacific theater as a radio operator on several ships, including the USS Montpelier and YP-347 and on the tiny island of Ofu in American Samoa, a place dear to him.
At the end of the war, he went to the University of Southern California Los Angeles on the GI Bill and was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity. While there he earned spending money by being an "extra" in the movies of the Ronald Coleman/Van Johnson era.
Deciding on a military career, he rejoined the Navy, and later the Air Force and the Army, serving in the security services of all three. He has been stationed in Frankfurt, Bremerhaven, and Landsberg am Lech, Germany, the Philippines, San Francisco, San Antonio and Port Deposit, MD. He retired from the Navy with 20 years service.
This was followed by a second career at the National Security Agency where he taught at the training school and worked in operations and communications security. He retired in 1984, with a total of forty years total government service.
He had a lifelong interest in electronics beginning with his first job as an apprentice radio repairman (and floor sweeper!) at 12 years old. Over the years he has built many radios and televisions and other devices like garage door openers, answering machines, and even an electronic organ. He loved playing golf and used to play weekly with a group of Navy friends at the former Fort Meade Golf Course. Worldwide travel was also a passion; he and his wife spent forty years of vacations experiencing other cultures together. He also lived in Oslo, Norway for three years, while his wife worked on a political attache at the US Embassy. In the past, he liked swimming and photography, including his own dark room developing. More recently you could find him solving cryptograms or working (and playing on his computer).
He was a member of the Guild for L.I.F.E. at Anne Arundel Community College for many years as well as the Phoenix Society retirement group.
He has been a wonderful husband and it is hoped he will be remembered for his great sense of humor, corny jokes, and shirts with funny sayings.

Hubert is survived by his wife of 43 years, Gretchen Roy, whom he married at the US Naval Academy Chapel, and by two children from a previous marriage, Eugene Roy and Helen Turnipseed.
He was preceded in death by his mother and stepfather Alice and Christensen of Tucson, AZ and by his brother Raymond Roy of Florida and Australia.

Friends may pay respects on Friday, October 3, 2014 from 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm with a Memorial Prayer service to be held at 6:00pm at Barranco & Sons, P.A. Severna Park Funeral Home, 495 Ritchie Hwy, in Severna Park. A private interment at Plum Creek Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA will be arranged by Ross Walker Funeral Home, New Kensington, PA. Those who do not wish to send flowers may make a memorial donation to Anne Arundel Medical Center Foundation, 2001 Medical Parkway, Suite 240, Annapolis, MD 21401 or to the veteran's organization of your choice, such as, but not limited to Vietnam Vets, AMVETS or Wounded Soldiers.
Online condolences may be made at www.barrancofuneralhome.com