Roy, Donald F.

Donald Francis Roy (1909-1980), noted industrial sociologist, was a faculty member at Duke University in the Department of Sociology from 1950-1979. Roy's areas of specialization were field methods of sociological research and social conflict.

From the description of Don Roy papers, 1921-1980. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 57225812

Donald Francis Roy (1909-1980), noted industrial sociologist, was a faculty member at Duke University in the Department of Sociology from 1950 until his retirement in 1979. Roy was educated at the University of Washington (A.B., 1935; M.A., 1935) and at the University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1952). Roy held a number of teaching positions before he came to Duke. He taught at the University of Washington (1935-1937), the University of Oregon (1937-1938), the University of Chicago (1947-1950), Roosevelt College (1948-1950), and the Illinois Institute of Technology (1949-1950).

Roy's areas of specialization were field methods of sociological research and social conflict. Roy applied the participant observer approach to factory situations. He began in 1934 with a study of the makeshift world of unemployed men in a Seattle shantytown called Hooverville. Roy moved into Hooverville and wrote a master's thesis titled Hooverville, a Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle. Roy's interest in workplace interactions led him to employment in twenty-one different occupations in twenty industries. Roy used his personal involvement in these industries as a basis for his sociological research.

Donald Roy coined the term banana time, a concept that signifies how employees have made workplaces more tolerable by participating in off-task camaraderie. Banana time refers to the collectively determined break time of factory workers, the start of which was signaled with a lunch box banana.

Roy was married and had two children.

From the guide to the Don Roy Papers, ., 1921 - 1980, (University Archives, Duke University)