Clear, 47° F
Roy Glynn Bryan Sr., passed from this life in the early hours of March 4, 2023, at St John’s nursing home in Billings, Montana. He was 80 years old. He died of declining health. He and his wife Sandra were longtime residents of Powell, Wyoming, until her death in 2021.
Services are planned for Monday, March 13, at 10 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church, Powell, Wyoming. Per his request, cremation has taken place. Interment next to his wife will be in Billings, Montana, at a later date.
Roy Glynn Bryan was born Nov. 10, 1942, in Waco, Texas, to Roy Daniel and Louise (Stone) Bryan. His family often called him “Roy Glynn” to distinguish him from his father. He grew up the eldest of three children. His father was a pipe-fitter and boiler-maker by trade, and worked in oil refineries throughout the south during World War II, when Roy Glynn was born. His mother was a homemaker. He remembers his mother being a strong Christian. When asked about childhood memories, he said his earliest memory was living with his family in a shack between a saw mill and the railroad track. His mother would hang laundry out to dry on the clothes line. The clothes would get cinders on them from the smoke stacks of passing trains.
Roy Glynn said he received a bicycle from his father when the family was living above his father’s plumbing shop in Jonesville, Louisiana. His father told him to take care of the bicycle because he was not going to buy him another one. He said one day he was riding the bicycle when a drunk driver ran him off the road and ran over the bicycle. He said his dad was true to his word and never bought him another bicycle.
In the 1950s the Bryan family settled in Ruston, Louisiana. Roy enjoyed spending time in the woods where he hunted, built forts and played. He received a 50 cent allowance each week, which he spent on .22 ammunition. His chores included keeping the wood box full, feeding chickens, and helping his father breed and raise beagles. He said his family was relatively poor; he went to school barefoot for years. In high school he sometimes had to work for his father’s plumbing business, and as such, was involved in laying some of the plumbing at Louisiana Tech.
Roy attended Ruston High School, where he was voted most handsome by his high school class his sophomore year. Locker assignments were by alphabetical order. The locker next to his was that of Sandra Chandler. In December of 1957, Sandra mentioned to him that she needed someone to escort her to the upcoming Kit Kat Klub formal on New Year’s Eve, and asked if Roy would. He agreed. This was their first date. Roy and Sandra dated through high school and while students at Louisiana Tech in Ruston.
Sandra and Roy Bryan were engaged to be married on Christmas Eve, 1962. They were on their way to his parents’ home to open gifts when she asked if there was something special about tonight. He said, “Yeah, I’m going to give you an engagement ring.”
She said, “Not at your parents’ place, I hope!” Roy pulled over, and he gave her the ring on the side of the road, just the two of them.
Roy and Sandra married Dec. 21, 1963, in the Grace Methodist Church, during Christmas break. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with extended family at the annual Stone Family Camp, J Bar J Ranch, near Sealy, Texas.
Roy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in zoology, which he never used. He found he could make more money in the oil field.
After graduation from Louisiana Tech, the family moved to Houma, Louisiana, where Roy worked off shore on an oil rig. Later, the company he worked for began transferring him every six-nine months, so that the family lived in multiple oilfield towns in North Dakota and Wyoming. To avoid continual moves, Roy quit working for Bairoid and began working for Amoco in Powell, Wyoming, in the early 1970s. Powell became the family home for the rest of their lives.
Roy Bryan worked in the Elk Basin Oil Field north of Powell for decades, where he was a field foreman. Before retirement, he was the environmental compliance officer for Elk Basin. One night, a particularly bad rainstorm caused a large amount of erosion damage to the oil field. Roy drove along the roads, video taping the rain soaked erosion. After his retirement, the U.S. government accused Amoco of causing significant erosion damage to Elk Basin. After seeing the video tapes Roy Bryan took, the government dropped the accusations.
In younger years Roy was a private pilot. He flew Moonies in North Dakota and Casper, and a Piper Cub out of the Powell airport. His wife said that their flight in his private plane, to Louisiana for Christmas, was the coldest cross country flight of her life.
In Powell, Roy continued his love of firearms, the outdoors and things Western. He collected and repaired antique firearms, hunted, camped with family and competed in shooting sports. He was the Wyoming State Class D champion in trap for one year in the 1980s. In Huntley, Montana, he won their annual Corn Shoot the first year he entered. His wife walked away the big money winner, because she had bought her husband in the Calcutta. In later life Roy enjoyed and competed in Cowboy Action competitions. He enjoyed riding his paint horse, Indy, with his U.S. cavalry McClellan saddle.
He and the family were members of the First United Methodist Church in Powell for many years. He was a member and past master of the Masonic Lodge in Powell.
Roy Glynn Bryan was preceded in death by his parents of Ruston, Louisiana, and his sister Velsa Morris of Springfield, Tennessee. He is survived by his older half sister Romayne “Ro” Cessac of Groves, Texas, and youngest sister Judie Harrell of Ruston, Louisiana. It broke his heart to be preceded in death by his wife of 57 years, Sandra Bryan, in 2021. He is survived by their three children: son Roy Glynn Bryan Jr. (wife Sonja) currently of Coldspring, Texas, but home in Rawlins, Wyoming; son Alan C. Bryan (wife Jamie) of Billings, Montana; and daughter Katherine Hooton (husband Tom) of Gering, Nebraska. He is also survived by 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
