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Roy E. Burris, Jr.
Burris
Posted
Roy Ellsworth Burris, Jr., passed away peacefully in his home in Rio Verde on June 15, 2019, at the age of 95.
Roy was born in Pasadena, Calif., on Nov. 10, 1923, to Roy and Clara Burris. While raised at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Roy appeared in the 1926 editorial page of the New York Evening Journal described as a “champion Arizona baby, strong as a young colt.”
During the Depression, Roy lived in Long Beach, Calif., where he met his wife Marjorie Cody and attended Woodrow Wilson High School. In 1941 he enrolled in the University of Arizona and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and the V-12 Navy College Training Program. Roy proudly served as an Ensign in the United States Navy during World War II from 1942-1946.
He attained a master’s degree in engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1948. From there he traveled to Schenectady, N.Y., to work on a “three-month” gas turbine test project with the General Electric Company of which he retired in 1988.
His hobbies were woodworking and curling. Roy was preceded in death by his wife Marjorie, daughter Diane Burris Shewan and sister Virginia Cooperrider. He is survived by his daughters Barbara (Carl) DeMatteo and Tina (Merritt) Willey, his son Roy (Lara) Burris, son in-law Larry Shewan and 11 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. Per his wishes no services will be held and interment will be at the Grand Canyon Pioneers Cemetery.
