-- DougTreff - 19 Jul 2007 From Ev Nau:

I showed up at DELASUSQUEHUDMAC a couple of years ago and saw a strange, wizened, bent old man struggling with a box of stuff. He had lost most of his hair, his skin was the color of a bus-stop men's room and his general demeanor was that of a man about to die any minute. Then I realized, it was Bob Royce. Damn!

We made brief small talk about the weather, the weekend's activities and everything else but that which mattered most: my concern for his well-being. His wife, Dobbie, was there and watched as our quartet, 3 Bobs Nau (comprised of three guys named Bob and me) sang a couple of songs. He was pooped just taking pitch, and three of us felt we were sending him away to his final reward.

Bob and I had served on many COTS faculties together over the years. We sought each other out at international conventions always with an eye to create a little mischief . . . just because we could. We always talked about the COTS we did together in West Chester, PA where I changed the letters on the marquis and confused two brides and two grooms . . . it was hilarious! We always just had a knack for being the bad little kids at a family reunion . . . and we relished it. Seeing Bob in this condition just made the memories more painful and precious at the same time. He was not going to make it, and none of us could find the right words to tell him we loved him. So, he left that weekend, returned to Georgia with Dobbie and began a serious of herbal tea treatments with a Chinese doctor in California. It wasn't long before we learned he was in Hospice, and the watch began. And shortly thereafter, it ended, for miraculously, Bob had stage a comeback. He was cancer free from all three forms of the cancer he had. His hair grew back, his color returned, he became the old Bob again and we rejoiced. He laughingly told us that he was the only man in the world to ever flunk Hospice. Lord, how we roared over that joke.

Times were good, we met again at DELA and sang with 3 Bobs Nau and remembered the same stories that we never grew tired of telling each other. Bob worked closely with me to develop membership in the President's Council in Dixie, and did a helluva job. We were given his presence for nearly three more glorious years. Yesterday, Dobbie called me to inform me that Bob had passed away. I have nothing to add to that except to say that in the last few years I found a way to tell Bob that I loved him and how much he meant to me. I'm glad, and only regret that he couldn't find a way to flunk Hospice one more time! Damned over-achiever!

Ev Nau - one friend poorer, many millions of memories richer thanks to Bob Royce