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Monticello Area Historical Society

rolling through downtown D.C. in an open convertible, with Royal waiving his arm and shouting "Vive la Truman"! During that stay, he and I were walking down a rather sleazy downtown street shortly after midnight…two or three toughs came along, one of them huge, passing us but saying nothing. Suddenly the big one whirled around, tried to grab our two heads and knock them together. He didn't succeed and when Royal produced a knife, took off running. We turned into the next entrance, a cheap type of all night flop house, and asked the desk clerk to call the police…he wouldn't. I guess "to protect and serve" didn't extend to his occupation and 911 was non-existent, but we  survived.

We parted again. Royal on CIA assignment, Jean and I to Richmond, Virginia for job & marriage and would not meet until two years later, when he had settled in his hometown as a country lawyer during which he delighted in making the speaking circuit of the service clubs where he was unknown, passing himself off as a Russian official.  It was the peak of the McCarthy era, and he would raise the blood pressure of his Rotarian-Kiwanis-Lions patriotic audiences by praising communism and pillorizing our  capitalist form of life. Just on the verge of being physically attacked, he would drop his sham and explain who he really was. Dangerous, different? …but all so Royal. He then disappeared again...but would come back from Washington from time to time, giving me helpful advice on making my mark as a fledgling lawyer in small town practice (Oconomowoc). We knew he was in Washington, no longer with the CIA, but not quite clear what he was doing...we found out.  You might remember the Nixon-Watergate scandal...the special prosecutor being one Attorney Leon Jaworski. Jaworski was one of two members of a large & leading Dallas Texas law firm who manned their Washington D.C. office. The other?  Royal Voegeli and Royal explained that his firm was the one that handled Lyndon Johnson's private work.  He would chuckle when he told us of Johnson's habit of calling either of them at any time of the night.  And heaven help you if you didn't have an answer for him.  Prior to this phase of his legal career he had been a litigation attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and after the Watergate era, was appointed to the legal staff of the newly created Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1974, serving until his retirement in 1994.

Royal was a loyal son of the soil. His family farm had the oldest herd of purebred Brown Swiss cattle in America.. I have warm recollections of the week ends I spent as a guest at the farm in Monticello, one of the many colorful Swiss settlements in south central Wisconsin, where the annual William Tell pageant / festival at New Glarus is the highlight of the year. He never lost touch with his roots, no matter how far away his  activities took him   Similarly he never forgot his friends and felt very badly about being unable to meet with us at our 50th law school class reunion...the reason? Although in full retirement and enjoying his boat on Chesapeake Bay aboard which he would try his hand at writing and painting, he had always wanted to tour other areas of the world       

In mid-February we had just returned from one of our trips out of state, I took a call from a mutual friend from Oconomowoc, a fraternity brother of Royal, though he didn't know him too well...he told me that Royal was dead...but knew no further details other then that he died in Egypt.  I called his younger brother Howard, who himself had just turned over the family farm management to his son. Yes, Royal had died in Egypt. early on he had had a blood clot in his leg, and for this reason always kept himself in good shape...but, against his doctor's advice, he had gone to fulfill his dream of seeing that ancient land. and as he stepped aboard a bus, died immediately, on February 8..

His funeral services were over before we had even got the news..

I find it hard to realize that he is not just a phone call away...to not hear him talking in his erudite manner, yet slipping in occasional" yeah sure's" as if he were reasserting his true heritage. His voice, so assuring, so calm, so caring... So vibrant...and now, so still

Farewell my good, good friend.  Farewell

[ Royal J. Voegeli, Esq., UW Law School, Class of 1950, Washington, D.C. formerly of Monticello, WI, Univ. of Minnesota, Ensign, USNR, WWII, Sigma Chi, died Feb. 8, 2001 at Luxor, Egypt. ]

Andrew J. Zafis, Esq.,

UW Law Class 1950,

San Diego, CA.