of Gresham, a former Wallowa Couny resident, died Dec. 28,2011, in Gresham at the age of 91.
He was born to Thomas and Rose (Jaynes) Wise in the small farming town of Hay in Washington state’s Palouse country.
In 1944 he married Betty Lou O’Leary from Usk, Wash. They were married until Betty’s passing in 1966 and had four children, Danielle, Tom, Sara and Mike.
In 1967 Roy married June McClarty Werr who was Betty’s first cousin and a widow with four children, Cecile, John, Martin and Patrick.
Nearing his airline retirement he bought and farmed a large wheat ranch in Enterprise, while commuting to San Francisco to take his flights. June and Roy lived in Enterprise for 16 years and finished raising their blended family. In 1983 they moved to Kirkland, Wash. June died in 2004 and Roy moved to Gresham in 2007.
In his childhood days Roy had watched barn stormer pilots fly over Hay and dreamed of becoming a pilot. After college at Eastern Washington University at Cheney he became a certified pilot and started his own flying school. During the first part of WWII, he worked as an air traffic controller in Boise, Idaho.
Later during WW II he got his big professional break and was hired by Pan Am for whom he worked 31 years. Initially he became a first officer on Pan Am’s B314 flying boats. Even though he was a commercial pilot, Pan Am was an adjunct to the Navy and he flew military supplies and mail to ports all over the world. In later years, as Pan Am became known as a luxury international airliner, he flew many famous people to their destinations and was proud of it.
After Betty died he took dangerous voluntary Pan Am assignments to fly soldiers in and out of Vietnam.
Roy is survived by eight children and their spouses, Cecile and Bruce Anderson of Fox Island, Wash., Danielle and Art Chapman of San Luis Obispo, Calif., John and Kathleen Werr of Newport, Wash., Tom and Noreen Wise of Seattle, Wash., Martin and Deborah Werr of Easley, S.C., Sara Wise of Gresham, Patrick Werr of Cairo, Egypt, Michael and Evelyn Wise of Seattle, 12 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
A funeral mass was held Jan. 4, 2012, at St. Henry Catholic Church in Gresham, with interment planned at Newport Cemetery, Newport, Wash.
Memorial contributions may be made to a charity of choice. Gresham Memorial Chapel is in care of arrangements