Roy Downer Bayly
Roy Downer Bayly Jr. passed away peacefully at home in Valle Verde, Santa Barbara on Friday, November 29th, at the age of 94. Roy’s life was a full one, his interests many and varied, and he lived looking forward to each new day. Raised in Pasadena, he attended Polytechnic School and the Catalina Boys School before graduating from the Cate School in Carpinteria. He then graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was an Alpha Delt. Roy served as an officer in the Navy v12 program in WWll.
Among his many loves, sailing was life long and his most memorable moment was crewing on the famous Chubasco racing yacht as she was First to Finish in the 1947 Transpac race. Small boats occupied him for many years thereafter and he was a keen and accomplished small boat sailor. The world of business was not one of Roy’s passions and he retired from banking at the still young age of 55. This left plenty of “quality time” for his love of gardening, farming and tinkering, to which he was well suited. He won a gold medal for his home-produced Santa Cruz County Pinot Noir, planted, grown and vinified with his own hands.
Roy and his adored family spent many enjoyable days car camping throughout Mexico and Roy was enamored with Mexican culture and history. A keen observer of life, he was also quite artistic, producing wonderful water colors and sketches in his later years. Roy loved to travel and he was good at it, going to Europe often and exploring the back roads and out of the way treasures that captured his interest. For the past ten years he was especially fond of the long stretches he spent at his “adopted” cabin in the high Sierras, binoculars in hand and sketchbook at the ready as he observed the varied bird life.
For these and so many other chapters and interests in Roy’s life, he was truly worthy of the title “The most interesting man in the world”.
He is survived by his five children Ty (Therese) , John (Julie), David (and fiance’ Sarah) Anne (Alice)and Ginny . “Popa” leaves thirteen grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife Martha. He is survived by his beloved Maren Thomas and her family. All of us will greatly miss this kind and engaging renaissance man.
Roy was preceded in death by his brother Russell Bayly and sisters Maybelle Bayly Wolfe and Nancy Bayly Watts.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to St. Marks Episcopal Church in Los Olivos or the Valle Verde Foundation-Village Fund. A memorial service will be held at St. Marks In the Valley in Los Olivos Saturday, January 4th at 2 p.m.