Michael Roy died fittingly while on an African safari
Roy always loved hunting, but saw there was no practical way for the handicapped…
Michael Roy of Bessemer, an avid outdoorsman and pioneer of rights for the disabled, passed away on April 12 while on safari in Africa at the age of 60.
He was confined to a wheelchair after a battle with polio at age seven.
Nevertheless, he earned an accounting degree from the University of Alabama, learned to fly a Cessna, and retired as an accountant from Bessemer State Technical College in 2001.
Loved hunting
Roy always loved hunting, but saw there was no practical way for the handicapped to enjoy it. So he and John Ramsey, who had recently been paralyzed from an 11-foot fall from a tree stand while deer hunting, co-founded Disabled Sportsmen of Alabama, a group that organized hunts for handicapped hunters, taking them to various hunting hot spots around the Southeast.
Established about 10 years ago, the group is still going strong with about 35 members. There was not a more fitting reward for his work for others than for his dying wish to come true—hunting wild game in Namibia.
Beginning the hunt early in April, Roy had already taken seven trophy animals when he told friends that he wasn’t feeling well and would be sleeping in. When his wife, Judy, came back to the room later that morning, he was dead.
He had had a tough year in 2002 with chronic health problems stemming from a reappearance of esophageal cancer that was first discovered back in 1996.
He died peacefully while doing what he loved. Although he suffered greatly with illness, he managed to touch the lives of a great many people.