Reporting Aside: Oakland man extends kindness to students from afar

Gil Roy stands this week amid an array of flags at his home in Oakland. The flags represent the 22 countries from which foreign exchange students have come to stay with Roy over the years. Since 2009 he has hosted more than two-dozen foreign students. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Seventy-six-year-old Gil Roy of Oakland wakes up each morning thanking his lucky stars for everything he has in his life.

He attributes much of that joy to his late wife, Anita, who left him with a gift he never imagined would be so fulfilling.

Gil Roy is shown Wednesday at his home in Oakland. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

She was working in the central office at Messalonskee High School in 2002 and told him about a job opening in the office, which he took. He had previously worked 28 years in the accounting office at Scott Paper Co. in Winslow which later was bought by Kimberly-Clark and closed in 1998 when he left.

He loved working with the high school students and he and Anita became class advisors, helping with the yearbook and other activities.

In 2009, Anita said she thought they should host foreign exchange students in their home. He was doubtful, but she talked him into it.

Their first student arrived that August from Moldova and they enjoyed having him, but seven months later Anita died. Roy was devastated by the loss and found the student another host family for the rest of the school year.

As difficult as the loss was, Roy knew he had to keep on. So he took in more exchange students the next school year and the next, all while working from home doing bookkeeping and payroll online for 14 companies.

“I work as fast as I talk,” Roy said Tuesday.

An energetic, animated man with a fierce sense of humor, Roy said that over the last 14 years he has had 27 exchange students from many countries, including Russia, France, Kyrgyzstan, China, Brazil, Malaysia, Japan, Mexico and the Czech Republic. The students stay for the academic year.

He loves to take them — and their families, when they come to the US to visit — on trips across the country. They have traveled to Washington, D.C., Florida, California, New York and many other states, visiting national landmarks and historic places. The families of Russian students even invited him to their country where he was treated like a celebrity.

“The people are great — Russia is such a beautiful country,” he said.

The nonprofit international exchange program through which he works is called Ayusa, which stands for Academic Year in the USA. The experience has been wonderful, he said.

“I thank God every day when I get up — for my health, the good wife that I had, and these kids.”

Gil Roy of Oakland, center, is shown with two foreign exchange students he hosted in recent years, one from Germany and other from Russia. They’re outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of Gil Roy

The first thing he does after picking up the students at Bangor International Airport is drive them to author Stephen King’s house to take photographs outside, as King is popular with kids around the world, he said. Then after settling in at his house in Oakland, they drive to places such as Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park where the students can get a feel for Maine’s beauty.

“I like to travel with these kids,” he said. “They make me feel good and they thank me a lot. I just got two letters from two of them that brought tears to my eyes. They call me Daddy.”

Roy grew up on Water Street in Waterville’s South End. He and his twin brother, Pat Roy of Waterville, graduated from Waterville High School in 1965 and then Pat enlisted in the US Army. A year later, Gil was drafted and headed to a base in Indiana where he trained to be a court reporter for the Army. He was so fast with shorthand that officials offered him his pick of where he wanted to be stationed, he said.

He chose to go to Germany, where Pat was based. They always had been close.

“I told my mother, ‘Don’t tell Pat I’m in the Army and I’m going to be his roommate,'” Roy recalled.

When he showed up in Germany unannounced, he remembers tears rolling down his brother’s cheeks, as he was so surprised and happy.

They traveled all around Europe and had a lot of fun, an experience that would begin a lifetime of adventure.

“I’m not done yet,” Roy vowed.

In August he will welcome a student from Russia and one from France.

“It’s going to be good,” he said. “I think my students see more than any other students that come to this place as exchange students. One mother from Russia said to me, ‘I’ve never seen my son so happy.’ ”

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 35 years. Her columns appear here weekly. She is the author of the book “Comfort is an Old Barn,” a collection of her curated columns, published in 2023 by Islandport Press. She may be reached at acalder@centralmaine.com. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com.