Elroy J. Weisner

Elroy J. Weisner passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in New Port Richey, Florida, on November 1, 2026. He was 84 years old.

Born on December 13, 1941, in Wausau, Wisconsin, Elroy was the son of Elroy Weisner and Margaret (Wittick) Weisner, both of whom preceded him in death. Friends and family knew him simply as Roy, a name that would accompany him throughout a life marked by service, curiosity, and a genuine love for people. After graduating from Newman High School in Wausau in 1960, he set out on a path that would take him far beyond his Wisconsin roots.

Shortly after graduation, Roy enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. He completed recruit training at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May in New Jersey before attending Electronics Technician "A" School at the Coast Guard Training Facility at Avery Point in Groton, Connecticut, graduating on November 23, 1960. The technical skills he developed there would become the foundation of a career in navigation, communications, and electronic systems.

Roy possessed a strong aptitude for understanding complex electronic systems and solving difficult technical problems. In the spring of 1969, he was commissioned as a Warrant Officer, a reflection of the technical expertise and leadership responsibilities he had assumed during his Coast Guard career.

Throughout his Coast Guard service, Roy supported navigation and communications systems that played an important role in maritime operations. Much of his work involved the operation, maintenance, testing, monitoring, and synchronization of LORAN-C (Long Range Navigation) systems, the sophisticated electronic navigation network that served as a predecessor to modern GPS technology.

LORAN-C relied on chains of precisely synchronized low-frequency radio transmitters operating across vast geographic regions. By measuring tiny differences in the arrival times of signals transmitted from master and secondary stations, ships and aircraft could accurately determine their positions, often hundreds of miles from shore. The system demanded extraordinary technical precision, as errors measured in millionths of a second could significantly affect navigational accuracy.

As an Electronics Technician and later a Chief Warrant Officer, Roy worked with transmitters, synchronizers, monitoring equipment, and communications systems that ensured the reliability and accuracy of this critical navigation network. His work helped mariners safely navigate oceans, coastlines, and remote regions around the world years before satellite navigation became commonplace. The systems he helped maintain represented some of the most advanced navigation technology of their time and played an essential role in military, commercial, and civilian maritime operations.

The career Roy built in the Coast Guard carried him far from the Wisconsin hometown where he grew up, introducing him to places and cultures he never could have imagined as a young man. His assignments took him from the tropical island of Guam to the challenging conditions of Greenland and onward to Southeast Asia. Along the way, he experienced different cultures and encountered people from many walks of life.

From May 1965 through April 1966, he served at Cape Atholl, Greenland, earning the Arctic Service Medal in recognition of his service under some of the most demanding environmental conditions imaginable. He was also awarded a Unit Commendation Medal for his service at the Udorn LORAN-C Monitor Station at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base in northeastern Thailand. There, he helped monitor and maintain the accuracy and synchronization of navigation signals supporting military and maritime operations throughout the region.

Following completion of Lighthouse Automated Maintenance Program training in February 1974 and LORAN Synchronizer School in October 1974, he continued to play an important role in maintaining and modernizing the navigation infrastructure that guided mariners safely across the world's waterways.

Through assignments that took him from Guam to Greenland and Southeast Asia, Roy spent much of his career supporting navigation and communications systems across a variety of operational environments. His duties ranged from service in the Arctic conditions of Greenland to navigation support activities in Thailand and the ongoing maintenance of maritime navigation infrastructure.

On February 1, 1980, Roy retired from the United States Coast Guard as a Chief Warrant Officer 3, bringing to a close twenty years of service. His family was always proud of his military career, but Roy rarely measured a life by rank, awards, or titles. What mattered most to him were the people he met and the opportunity to contribute through his work. His efforts helped support the safety and reliability of maritime navigation systems used around the world.

Never one to stop learning, Roy continued his education after retirement and earned an Associate of Arts and Sciences degree from Shoreline Community College in Seattle, Washington, in March 1982.

While he was proud of his accomplishments, family and friends will remember Roy most for the simple things that brought him joy. He was a lifelong sports fan who could spend hours watching games, recording them, and talking about players, teams, and memorable moments. Whether it was baseball, football, golf, basketball, or a sport most people had never heard of, chances are Roy was watching it. In his younger years, he enjoyed playing golf, baseball, and softball, and his love of sports never really left him.

For much of his life, Roy was rarely far from a book, newspaper, or magazine. He enjoyed learning about the world, following current events, and exploring new ideas. That curiosity shaped not only his career but also the way he moved through life, always interested in a new idea, a new story, or a conversation with someone he had just met.

He was also a proud member of the Chief Warrant & Warrant Officers Association, United States Coast Guard, maintaining a lifelong connection to the service that had shaped so much of his life. He was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for more than forty years, where he maintained his sobriety and served as a sponsor to others seeking recovery. Guiding others through recovery became one of the many ways he continued a lifelong commitment to helping those around him. Whether through encouragement, shared experience, or simply listening, he offered support to people who needed it. He devoted considerable time to supporting others in recovery.

Yet despite his many accomplishments, nothing mattered more to Roy than the people he loved.

He loved his family deeply and took great pride in watching it grow through the years. Few things brought him greater happiness than seeing the people he loved build lives, families, and memories of their own.

He enjoyed spending time with friends and rarely met a stranger he wasn't willing to strike up a conversation with. He had a genuine interest in other people and an ability to make them feel comfortable almost immediately.

He loved animals, enjoyed helping others, and approached life with an open heart. Social conventions did not always matter much to him, but kindness and sincerity did. Roy could be funny, stubborn, generous, and completely unapologetic about being himself. The world was full of people he had not met yet, and he seemed genuinely interested in every one of them.

Roy is survived by his beloved wife, Sherrie; his sons, Jeffrey and Michael; his stepson, Robin; his daughter-in-law, Leah; his granddaughter, Megan; and his great-grandson, Sage.

We will remember him as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. We will remember the stories, the conversations, his sense of humor, and his willingness to help whenever someone needed him. We will remember a man who spent his life showing up for others, whether in uniform, through recovery, or simply with a listening ear, a shared laugh, and a willingness to help whenever he could.

He will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered by all who knew him. His legacy lives on in the family he loved, the friends he cherished, and the many lives that intersected with his over the years. Over the course of eighty-four remarkable years, Roy left an impression not through grand gestures, but through kindness, curiosity, generosity, and a genuine interest in others.

We were fortunate to have had him in our lives, and we will carry his memory with us always.