Jim Scalfone

the fact that roy was
the best television art director
in the history of advertising...
was only the tip of his iceberg 

what most people didn't know
was how many other things roy had mastered...
he was an accomplished
carpenter
electrician
mason
plumber
cartoonist
fine artist
writer...
he seemed to master any endeavor he undertook
he was truly a renaissance man 

but the thing i loved most about what roy mastered
was his sense of humor...
he was dry, sharp, incisive and lovingly disrespectful... 

like the first time roy took me to lunch,
as we were leaving he called out to his secretary
"carol, i'm taking jim to lunch, i'll be back in 20 minutes...
or the first time he gave me a raise, i seemed happy, so he said
"jim, my maid makes more than you"...
and when i mentioned to him
that another agency was interested in hiring me he said,
"tell them we'll pay half your salary... 

he was also enormously generous
bringing me to, shoots, edits, and voice over sessions
i watched him make advertising history
and became part of it
by pasting meatballs onto bowls of spaghetti
for one of his storyboards
he went on vacation one summer
and let me cover a commercial called "funeral"
he was that confident in his work... 

for those of us who worked for or alongside roy
it was tough love all the way
and sometimes it was just tough,
like the time i walked into his office one day
looking for sympathy for something stupid i did,
i said "roy when i tell you what i did, your gonna want to fire me",
he said "jim, be careful you’re talking to hitler"
which kept the total amount of times he fired me at 3... 

but  i came to realize
roy was simply demanding a level of excellence from others
that he demanded from himself... 

he demanded that excellence from himself when he was confronted with the battle of his life
he kept what he was going through to himself, never complained, didn't change and never lost his sense humor... 

he was truly heroic to the end... 

if God judges us on how well we used the gifts he gave us
i'm sure he will be well pleased with roy,
because not only did he fulfill his enormous potential with masterful success,
he filled the people around him with an inspiration that shaped their lives 

roy succeeded in finding a special place in the advertising hall of fame, the museum of modern art,
but most of all in the hearts of all those people who loved him so much... he is irreplaceable 

and i'd like to add on more thing to that list of things he mastered...
he was my hero

–Jim Scalfone
Associate Creative Director
Doyle Dane Bernbach 1968-1987