News Clip

Here is the short obituary they ran on KTVF {channel 11 in Fairbanks} the week after Dad died. Thanks Cuca for editing it for us.

Alicia Ristau

Dr. Roy Bird was a great advocate of my work as a bi-lingual writer and poet. When other instructors failed to support my efforts, he always encouraged me to pursue my studies, then as an undergraduate and more recently as a MFA graduate student at UAA. He never failed from being a kind soul. It's not an 'Adieu' but an 'Aurevoir' until we meet again. 

Abel Bult-Ito

Roy was just an amazing guy.  I got to know him shortly after I moved to UAF in the fall of 1999.  As the Honor's Program director, he helped me guide undergraduate students through the program requirements when they were doing research in my research lab.  We had many conversations about the Honors Program, university politics, and many other topic, but his commitment to students always stood out.  His enthusiasm for helping students get the most out of their UAF experience was heart warming and very contagious.

I am very sad that Roy has passed on, but his legacy will live on in those who remember him and the countless students who benefitted from his generous heart and his commitment to their success.

Fairbanks Farewell

As Geoff mentioned at the service, before our father’s death our family had only been touched by one other person’s passing. With so little exposure to loss, I had never witnessed a cremation. Seeing 

Dad laid to rest in a cardboard box was haunting. Looking at the pictures this morning brought back the same stab that I felt in Fairbanks. I was tempted to avoid spreading the feeling but decided that this blog is about remembering, not forgetting. 

After a few minutes of staring and crying, Corina asked if anyone had a pen or marker. She then wrote a Romanian message to Dad on the box. Later she invited everyone in attendance to also write messages if they so desired. Following are pictures of most of the messages. {I say most because I happened to forget my own note. Who knows how many others I overlooked?} If you intended your message to be for my father alone, send me an email and I will remove it.

As we were making preparations for the cremation, I kept asking Corina if we were going to have any sort of service. She kept insisting that my dad would have hated doing anything formal. {And, yeah, it’s the sort of thing he loathed.} I was thrilled when so many people caught wind of our “small family service.” I wish I had thought to record what everyone said, but as Dave says, we were all “crazy” during those first few days and the thought didn’t occur to me until later. {I’d love it if you’d post the background of the crazy, Dave.} 

Here are some pictures that I snapped at the funeral home. I apologize if you were in attendance and you aren’t represented. As expected, I was focused on mourning rather than documenting. {I also apologize if you are pictured and would prefer not to be.} Thank you to everyone who came. It was nice to see so many of my dad’s Fairbanks family.

I forgot to take a close-up of the flowers on the box, but here are the rest of them. My dad loved flowers, thank you for bringing them. They were beautiful.

 After the service people came to the house for a celebration that I believe Dad would have endorsed. Corina’s bookstore buddies provided a marvelous feast. {You’ve done so much more than that then and since. Thank you for your sincere friendship and service, ladies.}

Again, I have a mere sampling of those in attendance…

The party lasted into {and through} the night. Patty joined some of the boys in a “Roy-size shot” of Dad’s favorite whiskey, Jim Beam.