"Roy Daniel's Royal Name"

- For Roy Daniel, 1946- 2003

"Roy" is a word that simply means "King,"

With crown and with scepter, espoused to a queen;

And the word nicely fits, because each little thing

About him was "Roy"-al, if you know what I mean.

The lion is known as the King of the Beasts,

And kings and fierce lions and incomplete feasts

Show up in the Good Book now and then,

Like when Daniel showed up in the Lion's Den.

So that is why Roy got the name of Daniel:

You can look it all up in some well written manual.

You can look all these facts up inside of a book,

A logical place, if you care to look

In the Bible, or Dead Sea Scrolls, or the Canon,

Or ask Queen Thea or Princess Shannon.

There are also alternate ways to find

Secrets that unlock the Royalist mind

These can be found searching A to Z

In sanctum sanctorum of the LRC:

King Roy will perhaps show up on a podcast;

His royal voice goes out perhaps on a broadcast

Telling all students that service is suspended

Until the devotional hour has ended

(If so, then his voice might be ratcheted down

To a lower bass voice for each verb and noun).

Perhaps all his facts will be found on a tape,

On a VHS or in some other shape,

Perhaps you will find on a DVD

Knowledge illuminating you and me;

Perhaps some mind-blowing fact, like a bomb,

Will explode in your ears on a CD-ROM;

Whatever within our fine LRC you seize,

Retain as a fact in your mind, if you please,

That Roy is the one to thank for these.

Yes, the LRC is where he did his thing,

For this was Daniel's Den of the King.

One extra thing must be said, though it's a pity:

Roy had to serve on more than one committee.

There sat Roy with his beard all official:

His comments were real, and not artificial,

Not uninformed and not prejudicial.

But all Roy's time wasn't spent at work;

He certainly had other places to lurk:

Whether the weather was fair or foul

You could find him and boat at a Lake named Powell;

You could find him as DJ or making a movie,

Showing by example the meaning of "groovy."

Five-foot-five,

Truly alive,

Even though he ate his Wheaties,

Roy since childhood had diabetes.

He suffered from transplants, surgeries and pain,

But then kick-started his life up again.

He never spent time on hoping or wishing,

When he could be out hunting and fishing.

And so Royal Roy got his kicks and his fun

Behind a car wheel, or a boat, or a gun:

He could be smiling and he could be sweet,

But you never quite knew: was he packing his heat?

If you saw a quick blur on the road, you could bet

You had almost seen Roy in his speeding Corvette.

If Roy had a life, which in quantity

Was far, far too short, it had Roy,

It had joy,

It had solid quality.

Now there is a lesson for sure to be learned:

Live every day, let each minute be earned.

We, all of us, cannot help but be lifted

If we see every hour as royally gifted.

"Roy" is a word that simply means "King,"

With crown and with scepter, espoused to a queen;

And the word nicely fits, because each little thing

About him was "Roy"-al, if you know what I mean.

- Richard Hacken, 15 February 2007