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Roy Herren may come across as not having a lot to say.
Ah, but don’t let volume be mistaken for substance.
Herren has plenty to say, and it’s typically just what needed to be said at the time.
Just ask those who know him.
“I have known Roy for a long time and I can honestly say he has earned the respect of everyone that knows him,” said Eldon Mayor John Holland, who serves with Herren on the city’s board of aldermen. “He has had a long and successful career with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and has built his life around doing community service and helping others.”
To those who know him, the soft-spoken Herren is considered one of the good guys.
“The last 13 years he has continued that community service as 2nd Ward alderman for the city of Eldon,” Holland said. “Nine of those years he has served as mayor pro-tem on the City Council and holds that position today. He is truly an asset for the city and we are proud of all his accomplishments. Roy has contributed so much to our community through his knowledge and experience and working with Roy is a real pleasure.”
Herren takes his role on the board of aldermen seriously.
“Roy has been a steady driving force and has always been truly concerned about the well being of the citizens of Eldon,” said Ron Bly, who served as mayor of Eldon from 1998-2010. “I always enjoyed serving with him on the board of alderman. During my tender as mayor you could always count on him to do the research needed to make solid decisions.”
Herren has served on the Eldon Board of Aldermen since 1998. He’s the second-longest serving member of the board. Jack Owen came on the board one year earlier, in 1997.
Owen, like Herren, is a retired Missouri highway patrolman. Both of them were based out of Eldon.
“I graduated from the academy in ’67, and they assigned me here,” Owen said. “I’ve been here ever since.
“I was already here (when Herren was assigned to Eldon),” Owen said. “We worked the road together for years, then he went into criminal investigations and the new gaming division.”
Owen retired in 1996, two years after Herren.
It was Owen, actually, who approached Herren to see if he would be willing to fill a vacancy on the board of aldermen.
Roy Herren may come across as not having a lot to say.
Ah, but don’t let volume be mistaken for substance.
Herren has plenty to say, and it’s typically just what needed to be said at the time.
Just ask those who know him.
“I have known Roy for a long time and I can honestly say he has earned the respect of everyone that knows him,” said Eldon Mayor John Holland, who serves with Herren on the city’s board of aldermen. “He has had a long and successful career with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and has built his life around doing community service and helping others.”
To those who know him, the soft-spoken Herren is considered one of the good guys.
“The last 13 years he has continued that community service as 2nd Ward alderman for the city of Eldon,” Holland said. “Nine of those years he has served as mayor pro-tem on the City Council and holds that position today. He is truly an asset for the city and we are proud of all his accomplishments. Roy has contributed so much to our community through his knowledge and experience and working with Roy is a real pleasure.”
Herren takes his role on the board of aldermen seriously.
“Roy has been a steady driving force and has always been truly concerned about the well being of the citizens of Eldon,” said Ron Bly, who served as mayor of Eldon from 1998-2010. “I always enjoyed serving with him on the board of alderman. During my tender as mayor you could always count on him to do the research needed to make solid decisions.”
Herren has served on the Eldon Board of Aldermen since 1998. He’s the second-longest serving member of the board. Jack Owen came on the board one year earlier, in 1997.
Owen, like Herren, is a retired Missouri highway patrolman. Both of them were based out of Eldon.
“I graduated from the academy in ’67, and they assigned me here,” Owen said. “I’ve been here ever since.
“I was already here (when Herren was assigned to Eldon),” Owen said. “We worked the road together for years, then he went into criminal investigations and the new gaming division.”
Owen retired in 1996, two years after Herren.
It was Owen, actually, who approached Herren to see if he would be willing to fill a vacancy on the board of aldermen.
“I was sent over to ask Roy if he would be interested in serving on the board, and he said he would,” Owen said. “We’ve been on the board ever since.”
Owen and Herren have different personalities, Owen would be the first to tell you, but they get along well.
“We’re close,” Owen said. “We used to kid each other … we’re completely different in a way, but we compliment each other, I think, on the council. We work well together.”
Owen admires his longtime colleague.
“He is very sincere,” Owen said. “If you had to say which one of us is the most serious, it would be Roy. He doesn’t mince words at all. When he says something, he has thought about it.”
Besides serving on the city’s board of aldermen, Herren is a regular at Eldon High School sporting events. His youngest son, David, is the volleyball coach. And for years, Roy has worked the clock at the scorer’s table for boys’ basketball games.
“It has been a privilege to have the opportunity to get to know Roy,” said EHS football coach and athletic director Shannon Jolley. “I have appreciated Roy being part of our great scorers’ tables. Whenever you get an opportunity to meet and work with someone like Roy you know you have met someone special. Roy’s participation at our tables is just a small part of what Roy and his wife have done for our community.”
Roy and Jo were married in 1958. The following year, he was graduated from Westminster College in Fulton.
“So we were off and running after I graduated,” Roy said. “I did a brief stint with Liberty Mutual. They hired me out of college as a claims investigator. I didn’t stay with that very long.”
The Herrens moved around, wherever Roy’s job took them.
His first job in law enforcement was with the St. Louis County Police Department, which he did for about five years. Then he was a sales rep with Sylvania for about five years.
On the side, Roy served in the Army Reserve for about 12 years, including a six-month stint of active duty when he as a tank platoon leader.
Roy could have made a career in sales. After making a speech at a retail sales meeting, he had the opportunity to climb the corporate ladder.
“As it happened, all the brass were there and if I do say so, it was a good speech,” Roy said. “They liked it.”
So good, in fact, it resulted in a promotion. At least an offer of one.
“Eventually they offered me a job as a supervisor of training for a division that included more than 100 salesmen,” Roy said. “I didn’t take the job. I didn’t feel like I could live on the salary in New York. I said I’ll take it but I have to have X amount of dollars. They said no. I said thank you very much. I appreciated being considered, but I walked away from that. But like most companies, once you turn them down, you can kiss your opportunities goodbye. We could see the handwriting on the wall.”
That’s when Roy returned to law enforcement, and that’s where he stayed.
So in 1969, still in his early 30s, Roy began his career with the Missouri State Highway Patrol. He was close to the cut-off age for joining the patrol.
“You could come on the patrol then when you were 21,” Roy said. “I was one of two of the oldest guys in the class.”
Roy attended the patrol academy when it was located in Rolla.
“I was in the next-to-last class or maybe I was in the last class when the academy was to go through Rolla,” Roy said.
Today, the academy is located in Jefferson City.
Roy’s first assignment was north St. Louis County, which included the airport.
He was transferred to Eldon in 1974. It has been home ever since.
For Jo, it was like coming home. She grew up in Barnett and went to high school in Eldon.
“She was happy to come back here, and we’ve been here ever since,” said Roy, who grew up in Bartlesville, Okla.
Before coming to Eldon, Roy had a supervisor give him a bit of advice.
“He said I’m going to tell you about Eldon. He said there are some fine people in Eldon, and there are some real SOBs,” Roy said. “He said it’s just like any other town, there’s the good, the bad and the ugly.”
Roy’s seen it all during his time as a patrolman as well as an alderman.
“It’s a good town,” Roy said. “It has its problems, like every other town. But pound for pound, I would say Eldon is a good town.”
All three of Roy and Jo’s children grew up in Eldon and attended Eldon schools.
Oldest son Mitch is a managing partner in a law firm in Wichita, Kan. Youngest son David teaches social studies at Eldon High School and coaches volleyball. Roy and Jo’s only daughter, Sandra, also is a lawyer.
“She’s raising three kids, so the lawyer work is sort of on hold,” Roy said of daughter Sandra, who lives near Fulton.
Roy and Jo, a retired schoolteacher, have eight grandchildren.
Roy spent 24 years in the patrol, retiring in 1994.
“I’ve been gone a long time,” he said. “The patrol was good to me. There are always unfortunate parts, but for the most part I enjoyed it.”
For Roy, the patrol work was rewarding. He liked helping people. And he liked catching the bad guys.
“I put a lot of guys in prison, several for murder,” Roy said. “But you spend very little time waving a gun around.”
Roy can remember firing his weapon at least one time during his career with the patrol. Two prisoners from the Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City had escaped and were burglarizing cabins along the Missouri River.
“I shot one of them, but it was just in the arm,” Roy said. “I may have drawn my gun another time or two, but if you do shoot, you can be sure you will be doing paperwork for a long time.”
Since retiring, Roy has continued to be involved in his church, Fellowship Bible Church. He even served as pastor for two and a half years.
“There was an interim period there where the church asked me to step in on a temporary basis (when the pastor left), and two and a years later I stepped down. It turned out to be more than temporary. But it was a good experience.”
Roy is currently an elder in the church and Jo teaches Sunday school.
Friend and fellow alderman Owen respects Roy’s values and faith so much he asked him to conduct the funeral services for his mother and his ex-wife.
“He did both of them,” Owen said. “I even told him I want him to do mine.”
About 12 years ago, Roy learned he had Parkinson’s disease. The disease has made him less steady on his feet, his hands shake and he sometimes has trouble articulating his words, but he copes the best he can.
“I had a slight tremor in my left side, and it was just ever so slight,” Roy said of the first signs he had the disease. “When I was in to see my doctor on routine visit I gave him the symptoms and he did some testing and he said I believe you have the early stages of Parkinson’s.”
Roy makes the best of living with the disease. He tries to remain as active as possible, including playing golf.
“Eventually it will probably cause me to quit that,” Roy said. “But I’ll do that until I have to quit.
“It will definitely slow you down, and I have to be careful going up and down stairs,” he said. “I take medication, I exercise, I do what I can to curtail it, but there’s no cure.”
Roy is philosophical when it comes to having Parkinson’s.
“It’s like anything else, you’re not going to get any better sitting around,” he said. “There’s not really an alternative. If you get your dauber down, it won’t cure ya. They are coming out with medical innovations that hold out some hope for people like me. I could have had Alzheimer’s or Lou Gehrig’s, more devastating diseases. Somehow I wound up with Parkinson’s.”
Owen can see the physical effects the disease has had on Roy, but said his friend’s mind is as sharp as ever.
“He’s the same guy I’ve known for years,” Owen said. “He’s not the same on the outside, but he’s the same guy on the inside.’
Roy, 74, hasn’t decided whether he will run for re-election to the board of aldermen when his term expires in 2013.
“I haven’t decided if I will run again,” he said. “It will depend a lot on my health. I’ve got one more year. I’ll have to make a decision on (whether to run again) when the time comes.”
Whether he does or not, Roy is proud of his service to the community, though being an alderman can be an unpopular position to be in sometimes.
“It’s a challenge,” Roy said. “There have been some tough times. It’s absolutely impossible to please all the people all the time. You just have to get used to that. Reasonable people are what hold a community together, and we have a cadre of reasonable people in this town.”
