Memorial service set for Bill Royce, Dec. 16

William R. "Bill" Royce, 74, a retired senior advisor and Middle East expert at the Voice of America (VOA) and a 22-year member of the National Press Club, died Nov. 24 at Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, Md. A memorial service is scheduled for Dec. 16 at 10 a.m. at the Club.

Bill especially enjoyed the Club's Friday taco nights, where he shared lively chats about travel and politics with his many friends and colleagues.

His expertise on the Middle East began with living in Iran for two years under a Fulbright Scholarship after graduating from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. He went on to earn a masters and doctoral degree from Princeton University. Bill was born in Chicago and grew up in Summit, N.J. He lived in Montgomery Village, Md.

Bill served in the Peace Corps teaching English in Shiraz, a center of Persian culture and a former capital of Iran. He became an expert on Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet, scholar, jurist and theologian. He taught Persian and Iranian culture at the University of Utah and in 1975 joined the faculty of the Oriental Studies Department at the University of Arizona.

Bill became director of the VOA's Persian Service in 1984 and oversaw the start of VOA television broadcasts to Iran in 1996. In 1997 he headed VOA's Dari language program and in 2002 became chief of its Pashto language service. He was a senior advisor at VOA until his retirement in 2008.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary, and is survived by his two stepdaughters, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.