Roy Buck Guptill

Born in Mitchell, South Dakota on March 16, 1956, Roy was the middle child of an even 11 born to Bill and Lorraine Guptill. Soon after his birth, the family relocated to Modesto, California, where they stayed. Roy, like the whole brood, attended Our Lady of Fatima elementary school, where he learned a healthy respect for the nuns.

Always, Roy had a love for the outdoors, which was a good thing, because the family often went camping near a lake or stream in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Roy graduated from Davis High School in 1974. There he majored in basketball, and was a starter on the varsity team, which was a good thing because of the basketball permanently attached to his fingers, and his perpetually taped ankles. He held the team average score record of 17.1 points per game! His Senior year, Davis was Division Champion and 2nd in the state, playing in Sacramento.

When the Modesto Junior College basketball coach benched Roy, it turned out to be a good thing. He suffered briefly, but moved on to find his new love of Computer Science, at California State University in Chico, CA. Upon graduation in 1979, he was recruited by Timberlake Software Corp in Beaverton, Oregon. For Roy, this was a dream job.

Also while at Chico, Roy met Elizabeth Williams, which was a good thing, because they moved to Beaverton where she became his wife, and they immediately started building the big family they both dreamed of. First born was Jolene in 1980, then Louis in 1983. Next came Mary in 1984 and then Laura born in 1986.

Sadly, Elizabeth had a blood transfusion in 1983 that was infected with the HIV virus – this was before routine testing. The couple wasn’t informed about the mistake until 1986, during which time, the virus was transferred to Roy. The next several years were filled with babies, toddlers and young children, while Elizabeth kept going as well as she could until her death in February, 1990.

Roy was planning to await his death while making plans for someone to raise the four children. Then something strange happened. He started to make friends with a crazy woman at work, (at Nike now) who had started a Lonely Hearts Club for singles from Nike data processing. Roy joined the group, which was a good thing. When the woman’s house was robbed, Roy started to feel some feelings he thought were over for him. Turns out, Roy had a soft spot for crazy ladies, and the crazy lady grew attached to him too. They courted, and Roy and Patti were wed March 14, 1992.

There were many ups and downs of trial medications, and times of feeling okay followed by pain and suffering. By 1995, following three hospitalizations, Roy thought the end was near. Then, protease inhibitors became available, which was a great thing, as Roy not only survived, but began to thrive. He was still too disabled to work at a job, but he had enough going on to take care of the family by cooking and shopping. Patti adopted the children and then, Roy and Patti did their best to raise them.

Another big change in Roy’s life occurred in 1995. Roy and Patti attended an introduction to Centering Prayer with Father Thomas Keating, held at First United Methodist Church in Portland. They thought it was meant to be, as an intersection of Roman Catholic and United Methodist faith. As it turned out, it was a good thing.

The couple started and headed a Centering Prayer group at Beaverton Methodist for many years. They learned quite a bit about the spiritual journey from tapes made by Fr Thomas Keating. Together they started a foot-washing ministry at the Downtown Chapel in Portland where they worked with the homeless. Roy also read Richard Rohr’s work and became involved in a prison ministry of silence. He helped to start several prison groups; he was able to stay the longest with his group at Sheridan Federal Penitentiary. He believed it made a profound impact on inmates’ lives, which was a good thing.

At one point an adopted niece was having trouble raising her new babies, and Roy and Patti decided to take on the care of the children while his niece worked things out. This was an epic task that didn’t end up helping the niece as hoped, but it did galvanize the couple to take on doing foster care for infants. More than a dozen children passed through their home. Two children would eventually come to stay – Frederick and Ebony were adopted and loved as blessings – a very good thing.

Roy was also involved with several non-profits. Mostly providing financial support, Roy volunteered many hours to what would become Mercy Corp, collecting medical supplies, and also St. Luke Productions, even going so far as to play a bit part in their film about St. Therese of Lisieux (playing a devil!), which was a funny thing. Roy also served as a board member for Oregon Contemplative Outreach and for Christmas in April (since renamed to Rebuilding Together). Other important non-profits he supported were A Promise of Health (started by his sister Barbara) that recently built a clinic in Oaxaca, Mexico, where previously they had no doctor or medicine! He also supported Lamling Vista, a group who built a school in Nagaland, India where children had previously had to attend boarding school away from their families at a very young age (this was started by his niece, Kate).

Another group of importance to Roy was the Zen Christian group, Seven Thunders. There was a priest, Fr. Pat Hawk, who led many silent retreats that Roy found transformational. The current leader, Leonard Marcel, helped Roy with his spiritual questions even up to a week before his death. He also attended many ”sits” at Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey in Carlton, OR. We’d say these were good things except that would be a judgement . . .

Some favorite sayings:

“Love is stronger than anything that tries to get in its way”

“Learn to Forgive reality for being what it is”

“we are not just made by God – we are made of God”