I just came across this obituary and wanted to send my condolences. I took Royace’s first- and second-year chemistry classes at Lubbock High School and was on one of his earlier UIL science teams, before they made it to DC. He was a great teacher and motivator and supported and encouraged my interest in science. He looked me up many years later when he was at PNNL, and we talked about the old science team and what us former members were up to. Looking back at all my years of school, he was my absolute favorite teacher. He was a great man and will be missed.

Jean and family – Michelle and I are so sorry for your loss. Royace was a wonderful friend and hunting buddy (157 duck hunts together – I counted). He was a great soul, a good friend, and a wonderful mentor. He will be missed. All our prayers in this difficult time.

Jean and Family,

Please accept our condolences on Royace’s passing. But, I want to thank you for sharing such a wonderful human being with so many colleagues at PNNL as well as the students and educators he touched through his time at the Laboratory. I’m a bit biased, but I think of how key Royace was to the “super education team” that Jack Bagley and Irene Hays put together as PNNL began a deliberate foray into K-12 science & engineering education in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Royace joined Karen Wieda, Kathy Feaster Alley and me as the initial team that dedicated itself to delivering against the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) expectations for impacting students and educators through its national programs. (Here I also want to acknowledge that later Royace and Dale Johns became an incredible team working with student and teacher researchers.)

This addition of K-12 meant DOE, through its National Laboratories, now touched pre-college, undergraduate and graduate education. I remember when Irene recruited Royace from LBNL. She had seen the incredible influence he had on their program’s participants when he spent summers in Berkeley (after teaching high school all year in Texas). I know she considered it a real “coup” that he chose to come to PNNL as a full-time employee. Royace was an extraordinary addition to our team. He was bilingual — that is he spoke the language of educators and he spoke the language of DOE National Laboratory scientists and engineers. This allowed him to be the consummate matchmaker for scientist/educator research appointments that benefitted the research of PNNL and the learning and teaching of science to students in those teacher’s classrooms. It wasn’t just educators who benefitted from Royace’s unique gifts. He was truly gifted in finding the right internship match for pre-college and post-secondary students as well. Their work-based learning experiences at PNNL helped advance their pathways to successful careers in STEM fields. Scientists, educators and students were not the only beneficiaries of interactions with Royace. So were his colleagues in the Office of Science & Engineering Education (now called the Office of STEM Education). He was a technical expert that we often tapped for advice as we conducted the projects that we had been assigned. He simply knew the cutting edge science and engineering of the Lab better than any of us and could help us understand how to best connect program efforts for which we were responsible in authentic and impactful ways.

Beyond what I have described above, I personally owe Royace a deep debt of gratitude. In the mid-90s, due to Congressional actions, DOE project funds for education were steeply cut. This was a time when I had just begun to manage PNNL’s Office of Science & Engineering Education. Laboratory leadership ensured that we stayed viable, but we had to become much more creative in our thinking and develop programmatic strategies and partnerships to replace those projects that DOE no longer supported through its national programs. It was a challenging time that required substantive external and internal collaborations as well as thinking “outside the box” efforts. Royace, like other members of the team, stepped up to the challenge and created some of the most unique programs that took advantage of other people’s money both within and external to PNNL. From the mid-90s until his retirement, Royace was a valued thought partner in how to establish, maintain and evolve our programs. I counted on his expertise and thinking a lot. Of course Peggy and I enjoyed our non-shop talk times together too (if that is even possible with both you and Peggy being teachers, while Royace and I were former teachers). I just want you to know how grateful I am that Royace (and you) were part of my life (and Peggy’s as well). God Bless You and Keep You.

Jeff & Peggy Estes

Jean – We are so sorry to hear of the passing of your husband. Sending you lots of hugs and prayers!!
Evan and Dyan Woodward