2012 – J. Roy Houston
Enduring Friendship
“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.” -G. Randolf
J. Roy Houston was a truly great friend to the Westmoreland Conservation District.
His introduction to our organization in the late 1960s may have been orchestrated (his boss at Peoples Natural Gas wanted employees to get involved with local organizations), but once the connection was made, it proved to be a perfect match. Friendship took hold quickly. And held tight for the next four decades.
Roy became the District’s chairman and its greatest champion, using his affable nature to draw others to the conservation cause. Long before social media, Roy counted his friends in the hundreds, and many of them became our friends simply because they liked him, and he liked us.
Roy’s habit of keeping his conversations light and his commitments sincere helped the young conservation district make friends in new arenas, too, including the foundation community, government, economic development, business, and the growing number of likeminded agencies. In partnerships with each, the District blossomed during his chairmanship (1970-2010), growing from one employee to 15…from one conservation program to seven…and from a handful of volunteers to a support base of nearly 100 individuals.
Roy’s friendship with the District helped him learn many things about soil, water, forests, and farms. But the one thing he always knew – and indeed, taught us – is that the most important resource of all is friendship.