Richard “Dick” Royer
Richard “Dick” John Royer, beloved husband, father, brother, granddaddy, entrepreneur and magazine publisher of Annapolis, Maryland, passed away from respiratory failure on January 4 at the age of 78 surrounded by his loving wife and daughter.
Dick was born on January 23, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to the Washington, D.C. area at the age of 5. He graduated from Northwestern High School in Prince George’s County. Dick’s career as a businessman and publisher began when he was a neighborhood paperboy delivering the Evening Star newspaper.
Upon graduation from high school in 1960, he enlisted in the United States Air Force serving for four years in San Antonio, Texas, at Randolph Air Force Base, where he excelled as an inventory supply specialist. He liked to say, “they don’t fly without supply.” Upon completing his military service, he returned to Maryland, where he studied at the University of Maryland and drove a Star truck dropping papers to the delivery boys. He would go on to graduate from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1970, with a degree in business administration. After graduation, The Washington Star moved him to a new position in the advertising sales department with a focus on employment agencies, real estate, and, finally, the boating industry where he learned to love boats and the Chesapeake Bay.
The watershed moment in Dick’s career was the purchase of Chesapeake Bay Magazine in 1974, where he was the owner and publisher for 40 years and also published an additional boating magazine Offshore Magazine located in Quincy, Massachusetts. Along the way, he owned and operated Annapolis Litho, a commercial printing firm. He was an icon in the Chesapeake boating industry — always participating in all of the Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis boat shows and building relationships with all those who shared a love of boating in the region. In 1984, he bought the Skipjack Sigsbee, one of the last Skipjack oyster-dredging sailboats, and donated her to the Skipjack Heritage Foundation, which he helped found. In 2014, Dick sold the awardwinning Chesapeake Bay Magazine and its other publications, including the Guide to Cruising the Chesapeake Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway Facilities Guide, to his business associate publisher, sales and marketing director John Stefancik and his partner, John Martino.
Dick possessed a strong sense of civic duty throughout his life, primarily through his membership and service with the Rotary Club of Annapolis, where he was a Paul Harris fellow and held numerous leadership positions including president from 2001-2002, when the club was awarded the Rotary International’s “Best Overall Club Award.” His dedication to the club — serving on the Membership Committee for many years — was a driving force in what the club is today. He was also a member of several other organizations and associations, including serving as the president of the Junior Advertising Club of Washington, D.C., secretary of the Washington and Maryland Association of Marine Dealers, a director of the National Capital Recreational Vehicles Dealers Association, the International and Regional Magazine Association, and the American Legion Post 7.
Dick’s devotion to family and sense of responsibility were second to none. He was married for 43 years to his sweetheart Elizabeth “Betty” Hurley. The dynamic couple met at Marmaduke’s in Eastport. He possessed a love of many things in life that included music by legends George Jones and Elvis Presley, boating on his treasured Chesapeake Bay, participating in Annapolis, Baltimore, and Washington Boat Shows, skiing, traveling, smoking cigars at the Annapolis Smoke Shop, and following college football and basketball, especially his beloved Maryland Terrapins.
He is predeceased by his parents, Richard Paul Royer and Edna Heritage, and is survived by his beloved family — wife Elizabeth “Betty,” daughter Victoria Royer Coley (Talmadge), grandchildren Katherine Elizabeth and Paul Richard, sisters Elaine Yoza (Fred), Catherine Royer, Joanne Ronayne, and Edna Wentworth (Kenny), as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. Tracy Wallis of Princeton, Indiana, and her family held a special place in Dick’s heart.
A visitation will be held 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday, January 13, 2022, at Hardesty Funeral Home, 12 Ridgely Avenue, in Annapolis. A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m., Friday, January 14, 2022, at St. Paul’s Church, 1505 Crownsville Road, in Crownsville.