Longtime Sanford barber Emile Roy, shown here in this 2010 file photo, died Monday. “Roy the Barber,” as he was known, was active in a number of local endeavors, from the Knights of Columbus to the Salvation Army. A committed Republican, he met four U.S. presidents, and formed a friendship with one of them, President George H.W. Bush, after the nation’s 41st president invited Roy to Kennebunkport to cut his hair.
To his five children, he was Dad, or Roy, or sometimes, Emile.
To a president, he was a treasured, loyal friend.
Roy, 96, died Aug. 1 at Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford. He had retired from barbering at age 92.
“I loved Emile Roy,” former President George H.W. Bush said in a statement released to the Journal Tribune Aug. 3. “He was a great, loyal friend who brought much joy to my life. How many times over the years did I look down from a podium into a huge crowd and spot Emile, wearing a big smile and an even bigger hat.”
“Ironically, the morning Emile died I woke up and decided I needed a haircut,” the former president continued. “I was at the local barber when the call came that he was gone. I don’t think it was a coincidence. Barbara and I send our love and sympathy to the Roy family and all who loved him.”
Active in politics, Roy was five times a delegate to the Republican National Convention, beginning in 1984. He had a penchant for crafting tall, stovepipe hats emblazoned with American flags and photographs of his favorite candidate. He attended several inaugurations.
Roy was known as the Sanford barber who liked what he saw and he read about a fellow running for the Republican nomination for president in 1980, and wrote him a letter asking how he could help. George H. W. Bush lost the nomination to Ronald Reagan, but was chosen as his running mate.
In a 2010 interview with the Journal Tribune, Roy recalled how he later met the future President Bush at a fundraiser, and suggested that if he ever needed a haircut, to give him a call. One morning, the phone rang. Roy packed up his scissors and drove to Kennebunkport.
From that first haircut, a bond was forged and a lasting friendship formed.
Locally, Roy was active in the Knights of Columbus and the Lions Club, and served on the Sanford Planning Board. He was a life member of the Sanford Salvation Army Advisory Board, and received the organization’s highest honor in 2001 when he was presented with the Booth Award by the senior President Bush.
According to his obituary, Roy donated all of his barbering tips to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or other charities.
Roy didn’t set out to be a barber. The boy who moved to Sanford from Quebec in 1924 with his parents and siblings at the age of 4 began working at age 11, first in local stores and then in the mills until America entered World War II. Roy joined the Navy in 1942, the day after he became an American citizen, and saw action in the South Pacific.
Following the war, he married his sweetheart, Betty Judson, and they raised five children.
He initially took a sales job with Coca-Cola, which meant delivering as well as selling the product.
“I knew I couldn’t do that all my life,” he said in the 2010 interview. He went to barbering school on the GI Bill and, still in the U.S. Naval Reserves, was called up to serve in the Korean War .
His son Daniel Roy recalled his father’s sense of fun and his delight at making children happy. He would visit youngsters on his moped, dressed as Santa with a toy head of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer mounted in the handlebars.
Paul Auger remembers the winter evening when Roy, disguised as Santa, stopped by his house to visit. Auger was 12 or 13 at the time, and was at home with brothers Dan, 11, and Pete, the youngest at 7 years old.
Roy’s pickup truck had a sleigh on the back. Auger helped him move it to the ground, then fetched his youngest brother to see Santa in the sleigh. As Auger recalled, Roy made several visits around Sanford that night to delight a number of children.
“He was very gracious, always polite, such a nice man,” said Auger. “That’s how I remember him.”
Daniel Roy said his father’s interest in politics first blossomed when Dave Emery was running for Congress and rented an office near Roy’s barbershop. Over time, Roy met several presidents, as well as a president of France and a prime minister of Canada.
His father was outgoing, but he had a serious side too, Daniel Roy said.
“He lived quite an amazing life for a barber from Sanford,” his son recalled. “He worked very hard, and was tenacious about doing things his way. Once he set his mind to something, he went for it.”
Calling hours for Roy are 4-7 p.m. Sunday at Lafrance- Lambert & Black Funeral Home, 29 Winter St., Sanford. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Monday at Holy Family Church of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish, 66 North Ave., Sanford. Burial with military honors will follow at St. Ignatius Cemetery.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 282- 1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
