Smyres, Roy Stinson

Roy Stinson Smyres (1895-1994) was born on November 17, 1895 in Mount Vernon, Indiana, to Luther Robert and Mary Hannah Brown Smyres. Nell Smyres was his only sister. Smyres grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana, attending local public schools and the local Methodist Episcopal Church. At the age of six he bought his first camera, a two-dollar Kodak Brownie, which began a life-long hobby that would create a large global image archive.

Smyres attended Northwestern University and Garrett Theological Seminary (then Garrett Biblical Institute), receiving his B.A. in 1921 and M.A. in 1922. He left during his junior year of college to go to Africa for one year as secretary to missionary John McKendree Springer. Roy sailed from New York City to Africa on the S.S. City of Glasglow in December 1916. The one year appointment stretched into three years.

Roy was stationed at Elisabethville, and later Kambove, Belgian Congo, where he taught at the night school when not traveling with Springer. He was appointed the assistant secretary of the Congo Mission Conference.

In 1917 Smyres was received into membership by the Central New York Annual Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church. He was ordained under the missionary rule by the Congo Mission Conference, with Bishop Eben, Johnson officiating in 1919. During that same year, Smyres journeyed with Bishop Johnson across West Africa to map out future mission stations. He sailed back to the United States on October 5, 1919 to resume his college work at Northwestern University.

Roy and Esther Montgomery of Sioux City, Iowa, were married on September 7, 1921. They eventually raised five children: Peg, Richard, Mary, Bob, and Ruth. The following year Roy was appointed to be the minister for the Forest Home Chapel in Ithaca, New York. At the same time he enrolled at Cornell University for a doctoral degree.

In 1924, Roy and Esther Smyres became missionaries for the Methodist Episcopal Church and returned to the Congo, where they worked for five years. Most of their time was spent in the bush country. Roy served as principal of the Congo Institute, district superintendent for the Elisabethville-Luba District, and treasurer of the mission.

They returned to the United States in 1929. Upon his return and in order to make financial ends meet Roy taught at Ithaca High School. He also worked at Associated Gas and Electric Company. Ministerial appointments for the Central New York Annual Conference included Forest Home Chapel (1931-1936), Horseheads (1937-1940), and Montour Falls (1941-1945). Roy became an instructor at Cazenovia Seminary in 1940, and served as treasurer of the conference from 1941 to 1945.

It was during this period of ministry that Smyres took his first around the world trip in 1957. He retired from the board in 1964.

The year after his retirement from the Board of Missions, Roy and and Esther Smyres volunteered to become missionaries to India and Nepal. They also traveled around the world for a second time, and that trip resulted in the production of more than six thousand photographic images.

Smyres remained active in church work on many different levels after retirement. He spoke, wrote, and freelanced as a photographer for the Mission Board and other religious organizations from 1966 to 1973.

Esther Montgomery Smyres died on July 2, 1972. Despite the loss, Roy Smyres later took his third trip around the world.

Mary Fraley and Roy Smyres were married on October 13, 1973. Smyres continued freelance photography and journalism for various religious organizations. The Protestant Church in Kathmandu in Nepal called Smyres to be an interim pastor for three months in 1974.

Upon his return from Nepal in 1975, Smyres developed a slide lecture about Nepal, and proceeded to speak about the country across the United States. During that same year, Smyres made his fourth and final around the world trip. It was Mary's first. Mary and Roy Smyres settled in Cayuga Heights, New York, until 1992, when they moved to nearby Bethany Manor.

Nell Smyres died on November 19, 1977, at the age of eighty-six

Eventually, Smyres visited eighty-five different countries during his lifetime. Many of these trips were to visit mission centers of the United Methodist Church. From the late 1970s and early 1980s, , Smyres focused on writing and publishing, and began to write his autobiography. He also continued to keep an active speaking calendar until 1981.

Smyres continued to be active in church work until 1989. He died on September 7, 1994, at 98. His final act of charity was manifested by donating his body to medical science.