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October 30, 2020

Travis Roy, Augusta native, NYA hockey star and beloved advocate, dies at age 45

FILE PHOTO / William Hall Suspension of interstate youth hockey competitions will continue through Jan. 31.
By William Hall

Travis Roy, the Augusta native and North Yarmouth Academy hockey star whose paralyzing injury on the ice led to his life’s work helping others, died Thursday at age 45.

courtesy / travis roy foundation
Travis Roy, an Augusta native who founded the Travis Roy Foundation, died Thursday.

The nonprofit he established in 1996, the Travis Roy Foundation, confirmed his death in a social media post Thursday evening. “We are heartbroken to announce that our founder and friend Travis Roy died today. We appreciate the outpouring of support. Details will follow in the coming days," the foundation said on Facebook.

Roy reportedly died after complications of a previous surgery, and had been taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vt., on Tuesday.

His death comes almost exactly 25 years after Roy damaged his spinal cord in a fall during the opening seconds of his first game as a freshman hockey player at Boston University, on Oct. 20, 1995. He was left paralyzed from the neck down.

While he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life, Roy became a leading advocate, author and fundraiser for spinal cord injury treatment and research.

courtesy / travis roy foundation
Travis Roy, shown as a freshman hockey player at Boston University in 1995.

His experience and his words have been credited with inspiring countless people. His foundation has raised more than $4.7 million for spinal cord research, and has provided millions more in adaptive equipment for over 2,000 paraplegics and quadriplegics.

Boston University — from which he graduated in 2000 — in 2015 established a Travis Roy professorship in rehabilitation sciences, funded with anonymous donations of $2.5 million.

Roy was the son of a Maine hockey rink manager and is said to have started skating when 20 months old. He played at NYA and then Tabor Academy in Massachusetts before enrolling at BU.

In a statement Thursday, NYA Head of School Ben Jackson said, “Travis was a valued member of our school community, where he often returned to speak to students and attend special events.

“Travis inspired our students and community through his positivity, generosity and his amazing work in support of those impacted by spinal cord injuries through the Travis Roy Foundation.”

The NYA Travis Roy Ice Arena, in Yarmouth, was named in his honor in 1998, and Roy was inducted into the NYA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019.

In an Oct. 19 Boston Globe column marking the 25th anniversary of his injury, Roy commented on the accident: “Sometimes I might be in a mood and might wish the moment didn’t happen, and I wonder what life would have been. But it’s a part of who I am."

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