MINT HILL, NC – On Wednesday, May 15, 68-year-old year old Roy Fielding, a twenty-five year resident of Mint Hill who spent fourteen years serving on the Mint Hill Planning Board, passed away unexpectedly in his family’s mountain home.
It’s difficult to capture Roy fully in only a few words. Beloved and respected by his students, Roy taught in UNC-Charlotte’s Kinesiology Department for 41 years and served as the university’s aquatics director. He was a certified pool operator instructor, an open water and master scuba diver and diving instructor, and a lifeguard and water safety instructor certified by the American Red Cross. The list of honors, awards and published work accrued throughout his life are truly astounding, including such honors as speaking multiple times at the World Conference on Drowning Prevention, being named Atlantic Swimming Conference Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year, a 45-year service award for the American Red Cross, and membership on the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council.
“It just seems impossible that one man could do it all, but he did!” marvels Roy’s niece and goddaughter Victoria Hargett. Roy had his hand in so many different endeavors that not even his closest family knew their full scope. “Every day since he passed away, I’m getting to know my husband all over again,” says his wife Mary Gaye. “I’m in shock about how much he did that I simply wasn’t aware of. I think that speaks volumes about him.”
An avid diver himself, when Roy was teaching his wife to scuba dive, he said to her, “Mary Gaye, if you want to look good on the beach, don’t be the one who shows up with the jacket with all the patches on it.” As Roy’s wife and family think back on his life, they know he would never want to be remembered solely for a list of accomplishments.
“He was a very successful man, but he was not one who wore it on his sleeve,” says Mary Gaye. “What he was most proud of is the impact he’s had on his students.” A member of the Department of Kinesiology at UNC-Charlotte from 1978 to 2018, the university was his life. “He’s done just about everything there,” says Hargett. “His students just adored him, revered him, looked up to him.”
“I was straight out of graduate school and just started my job at UNCC when he taught me my first hard lesson about being a professional by telling me, ‘No, your lack of preparation is not my emergency.’ And you better believe me I came back correct every time after that. Roy was tough and sarcastic, he didn’t mix words, and you knew exactly where you stood with him. However, he was also kind and generous, caring, helpful, funny, and a great friend and man.”
– Sophia Marshall, Friend & Coworker
“When you read the comments about him, it’s a steady flow of words that are almost the same,” says Mary Gaye, as she reads from comments written by Roy’s friend and coworker Sophia Marshall: “I was straight out of graduate school and just started my job at UNCC when he taught me my first hard lesson about being a professional by telling me, ‘No, your lack of preparation is not my emergency.’ And you better believe me I came back correct every time after that. Roy was tough and sarcastic, he didn’t mix words, and you knew exactly where you stood with him. However, he was also kind and generous, caring, helpful, funny, and a great friend and man.”
“Roy stayed at UNC-Charlotte for 41 years because he felt like he was making a difference,” says Mary Gaye. “He could have retired years ago. He stayed on because he loved being an educator. Education to Roy was just paramount. He felt like everybody needs to have access to a good education.”
To help make sure everyone has access to a good education, Roy and his wife recently established the Mary Gaye & Roy Fielding Athletics Development Fund, a scholarship fund for student-athletes at UNC-Charlotte. Donations to this fund are one way Mary Gaye wishes for people to honor her husband’s life, but she feels it’s important that people know Roy established it himself before he passed. “We want everyone to know that this is something he did before he died,” says Mary Gaye. “He was determined that we set up this scholarship at his alma mater in Iowa as well as at UNC-Charlotte. He was just so driven about making a difference.”
Like his mom, who taught swim lessons until the age of 97, Roy worked tirelessly throughout his life to promote water safety. Known as the “Pool Professor,” Roy maintained his own business training Certified Pool Operators. Roy’s service with the American Red Cross spans forty-five years, during which his work contributed to the training of hundreds of thousands of lifeguards, water safety instructors and lifeguard instructors, and helped millions of people learn to swim.
Roy’s love for the University he spent 41 years at and his dedication to aquatics came together when the University’s Chancellor announced that UNC Charlotte’s Belk Gym would be renamed “The Roy R. Fielding Aquatic Center” in his honor. In the world of academia, naming a building after a professor is fairly unusual, but the Chancellor received multiple requests from Roy’s fans that the pool he helped run for forty-one years should be named after him when he retired. Roy knew about the nomination but felt it was unlikely to happen.
“It just doesn’t happen for college professors,” says Mary Gaye. “Usually you’ve got to be a huge donor to have a building named after you!” Unfortunately, Roy passed away before he was able to see the official dedication, which was postponed due to COVID-19. Never one to need recognition, Mary Gaye remembers Roy telling her, “I’m not sure we’ll have this ceremony, but it’s OK. We all know it’s named after me, and that’s enough.”
In addition to all the other work Roy accomplished in his life, he also managed to contribute in a meaningful way to the Mint Hill Community where he and Mary Gaye lived for twenty-five years. Friends with former Mayor Ted Biggers, Roy was asked to serve on the Mint Hill Planning Board in 2005. “Roy was on the Planning Board because he believed in building right, building smart – bike trails, hiking trails, sidewalks,” says Mary Gaye. “He wanted it to be a pedestrian-friendly town.”
“He always made sure the safety and security issues were addressed, especially if water hazards were present. He was always concerned about the environmental impact development and growth was having on Mint Hill. He made sure that developers and contractors were doing the right things for the citizens of Mint Hill.”
– Tom Gatz, Planning Board Member
According to Fellow Planning Board Member Tom Gatz, Roy was known for the levity, sincerity and insight he brought to the Planning Board. “He always made sure the safety and security issues were addressed, especially if water hazards were present,” says Gatz. “He was always concerned about the environmental impact development and growth was having on Mint Hill. He made sure that developers and contractors were doing the right things for the citizens of Mint Hill.”
“I had the privilege of joining the planning board four years ago, and that’s when I first met Roy,” says Chip Todd. “I was struck by his passion for the town of Mint Hill and his desire to preserve its beauty during its growth over the past few years. I always enjoyed his sense of humor. The past year I got to know Roy a little better and we would spend a little time after the meeting talking. He would always ask about my daughter that was in college. Roy will certainly be missed not only by me but our board and the Town of Mint Hill.”
Commissioner Tony Long remembers Roy as a man concerned with the environmental influence of development who wasn’t afraid to cast an opposing view if he felt it represented the town’s best interest. He asked the difficult questions about development behind Showmars and Monroe Hardware and questioned the impact a Chick-fil-A would have on auto pollution. “It was rare to end a meeting without Roy’s defense for the trees!” remembers John Hoard. But more than anything, Roy’s fellow Planning Board members remember him as someone who always brought a smile to the meetings.
“Roy and I served together on the Mint Hill Planning Board for many years. Roy had a gift to be able to look at any rezoning project and decide first, was the project good for Mint Hill, and additionally, how would the project affect the world around us. Roy never failed to quiz a developer about the number of trees that could be saved on a site or what could be done to leave a site better than it was currently. Roy Fielding will be truly missed in Mint Hill.”
– Brad Simmons, Mayor
“Roy and I served together on the Mint Hill Planning Board for many years,” says Mayor Brad Simmons. “Roy had a gift to be able to look at any rezoning project and decide first, was the project good for Mint Hill, and additionally, how would the project affect the world around us. Roy never failed to quiz a developer about the number of trees that could be saved on a site or what could be done to leave a site better than it was currently. Roy Fielding will be truly missed in Mint Hill.”
Now, Mary Gaye feels it’s up to her and her family to make sure all the things that mattered to Roy – his dedication to water safety, to UNC-Charlotte, to the American Red Cross, to the Scientific Advisory Council, to the town of Mint Hill – continue to be supported. “He worked hard for everyone else, and now it’s our turn to work for him,” says Mary Gaye. “I want his name and all of his work to remain living. I don’t want any dust to settle on the work Roy Fielding was doing on behalf of those institutions.”
The morning of May 15, Roy hiked his customary twelve miles with his labradoodle Duncan, once a reluctant rescue but now Roy’s constant companion. He had just finished watering flowers and talking with his wife; he was in the middle of making a pot of soup. Although the details remain uncertain, his cause of death will likely prove to be his heart, something that even Roy’s own doctors expected would never be a problem again after his 2007 heart attack. He would have been 69 on June 2. His death came as a shock to his wife and everyone who knew him, yet they’re able to find solace in the fact that Roy left the earth from his favorite place, next to the dog he loved. “He was gone in an instant,” says Mary Gaye. “It’s such a blessing the way he got to leave on his own terms, which was just so typical for Roy!”
Behind all the honors and accolades, Roy was a man deeply dedicated to family. “He loved his dogs, he loved his mountain house, he loved making watermelon salad, he loved traveling and scuba diving,” says Hargett. “It’s hard to even remember the legacy stuff sometimes because he was just our Roy.” To his wife, he was a superhero, a combination of Aquaman, Ironman, Superman and Thor. “He seemed to me like he was larger than life and put on earth to make everything better,” says Mary Gaye. “He made all my dreams come true.”
Please consider supporting #teamroy and continuing Roy’s work furthering access to education with a donation to The Mary Gaye & Roy Fielding Athletics Fund: https://crowdfund.uncc.edu/project/21190.