Roy Jorgen West

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Roy Jorgen West

Roy Jorgen West, 88, of Las Vegas, Nevada passed away Monday, January 2, 2023 in Las Vegas. He was born December 6, 1934 in Duluth, Minnesota to Gordon and Ingrid (Helseth) West.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Gordy West Junior and Roger West and his beloved sister, Diane Hage-Neverdahl. He is survived by his Nephew Dan Hage, Niece Julie Youngren, son Steve Slovick and his very best friend over the decades, Mike Ginsburg of Las Vegas.

Roy graduated from Duluth Central High School in 1952. He was active in Capella, School Plays, Boy’s Club Council, Boy’s Ensemble, Thespian Club, Basketball Team, and served as Vice President of Drama, President of the Photography Club and President of Radio Drama Club.

Roy started his lengthy radio personality career in Cloquet, Minnesota at a very small radio station, WKLK. He went on to be a disc jockey at multiple radio stations over the years. He won "The Great WIND Comeback Award" from the WIND station in Chicago. He had his own highly successful radio show, "My Grandma's Funny Old Electric Radio", described as a show full of laughter and nostalgia with Roy West's hilarious commentary. Roy passionately collected vintage electric radios.

Roy was also a professional actor with movie and TV series credits including “Carlton Your Doorman”, “Sergeant Matlovich vs the US Air Force”, “Rhoda”, “The Amazing Spider Man (series)”, “Panic in Echo Park”, “Charlie’s Angels”, “The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case”, “The Blue Knight”, “Roll Freddy, Roll!”, “The Bob Newhart Show”, “Hawaii Five-O”, “King Kong” and others.

Roy wrote several books about Poker, including “Seven Card Stud” and “The Simple Way to Win at Poker”. He also wrote Poker columns for local and national publications.

He was also a successful professional poker player. He loved weekends when he and other professionals would go to the tables and win! Beverage of choice was always a Corona beer with a slice of lime.

Over the last few years his health and energy rapidly deteriorated. Roy kept his spirits bright making phone calls from his own cell phone, watching and listening to music and shows on his Kindle, listening to local radio programming and of course television reruns. Though Roy was certainly unhappy with his health/life situation, he was always grateful for the care and love he received. He shared his feelings of gratitude often.

Roy spent his remaining years at Royal Springs Health Care Center in Las Vegas. It was a true blessing to have his best friend Mike live close by. Mike was our only team member with “boots-on-the-ground” to quickly resolve innumerable technical, administrative and emotional support needs. Additionally, Mike visited Roy frequently, delivering companionship, friendly counseling, favorite foods, requested supplies and nearly a dozen replacement cell phones. We (Mike, Julie and Dan) called ourselves Team Rasmussen and we worked together to keep Roy going. In the process, Team Rasmussen members have strengthened life-long friendships among themselves. It is with confidence and pleasure we tell you; Roy knew that he was loved!

As Roy routinely said at the end of our conversations: “Bye, bye. Buy Bonds!”

A Few Memories of Roy West, By Mike Ginsburg

In high school, Roy played basketball and was the school photographer. Tall for his age, he experienced prominence.

Extremely bright, Roy knew a hell of a lot about a hell of a lot. Probably from retaining so much of the news and information he reported about. He was not really an avid reader by any stretch.

As a professional elocutionist, Roy had pet peeves and hated the way weather forecasters pronounced the word “temperature.” He professed they never said the “a” in the word. And he was, of course, correct. He hated one local news station’s re-naming of their traffic reports as “traffic solutions.” They have no solutions, he would protest.

Roy wrote columns for local and national publications about poker. In fact, he wrote what was at the time the consummate book on 7 Card Stud. He did this back in the days when computers were proliferating and people were beginning to put personal printers in their homes. I perhaps gave disproportionate blame to Roy for the paper shortage in the building. It was just that the timing of his On-air shift and the disappearing paper seemed to coincide along with his book writing endeavor. While many in the media considered airstaff to be the laziest people on the planet because all they really wanted to do was sit and talk, Roy was a clear antithesis. Everyone talked about writing a book. Few had the tenacity, and no one on staff did what Roy actually did, write that book!

He was a professional poker player and used to relish Fridays and Saturdays when “the fish” (tourists and amateur poker players) as he called them would come to town especially for big sporting events or shows. He and some of the professionals would go to the tables and fleece the amateurs and tourists. His favorite beverage of choice during these outings was Corona beer with a slice of lime.

Roy loved watching basketball on TV. A big pet peeve he held was how players could miss free throws. It exasperated him to no end. Roy professed he could teach them to throw and hit free throws 100% of the time by using a two-handed undershot rather than the standard shoulder launch.

Roy was a consummate radio professional. While other newscasters would “rip and read” news stories directly off the AP or UPI wire feeds, Roy would take and re-write, localize, and personalize stories before airing. At one point the radio station had hired a high-powered, highly paid professional radio consultant to come in and tell us that Roy’s voice was too rich and too much of an audio collision with the morning show host who had a higher pitched voice. The consultant recommended firing Roy. Gary Moss, our consummate Program Director for the station, did what he often did. Listen politely, followed the correctness of his own heart, and retained Roy’s services. The funny side of the story is that one year later the same consultant arrived back in the building and praised how wonderful the news guy sounded juxtaposed to the morning show host and of course gave rave reviews. An easy task as the show was now number one in the city!

Roy had stock and pat sayings. One of his favorites as he was hanging up the phone for a call, he'd say “Bye-bye. Buy bonds.” That was an old hold-over phrase from World War II publicity drives to purchase war bonds. Roy would proudly say he was a veteran, though he served only a short time as an enlisted Corporal stationed in Duluth, Minnesota as Still Photographer in The Signal School before honorable discharge for some kind of physical issue.

Roy deeply loved his sister and brothers, reminiscing and speaking of them often. He remained a bit tormented over his brother’s struggles with drug addiction but admired how well he did for so long. He thought his sister walked on water and was the true stabilizing influence in his life.

Roy professed to being married a few times and claimed a young son who was given up for adoption at birth. The boy flourished, became highly successful, and resides in Florida.

In his final days, Roy loved, loved, loved the Kindle his niece Julie gave him. He would play the same awful Barbara Streisand song over and over again. And then on other days he’d be on a Johnny Mathis kick. Must have driven his roommate Troy absolutely nuts! He always enjoyed the care packages Julie sent and the gifts Dan provided. Roy often spoke to both of them. Dan worked feverishly behind the scenes to make current, critical, and good decisions on Roy’s behalf and though Roy could rationalize resentment about some of them, he always appreciated the dedication, the dedication of both to making his life a bit more pleasant.