He was with Agriculture Canada as a research officer from 1957 to 1964, with postings in Ottawa, Charlottetown and Kentville. In 1964 he joined the University of Saskatchewan poultry science department as assistant professor. He became full professor in 1974 and remained so until his retirement in 1991.

Roy quickly established himself as an effective lecturer and student counsellor. He was named Professor of the Year by his College of Agriculture students, Professor of the Year twice by students of the College of Veterinary Medicine, he received the Poultry Association Ralston Purina Award for teaching in 1981 and in 1984 was named the first Master Teacher at the University of Saskatchewan.

In research he received international attention for his discovery of a mutation that causes seizures in chickens. This provided an important animal model of the grand mal form of epilepsy in humans. He published over 60 scientific papers and wrote many chapters for technical books. He was much in demand as a speaker at scientific meetings. He also studied and taught about genetics in other species. His expertise in dog breeding and genetics won him invitations to lecture in cities from Nova Scotia to California.

His crowning academic contribution was the editing and production of ìPoultry Breeding and Geneticsî (Elsevir, Amsterdam, 1990). He wrote five of the 42 chapters and co-ordinated the writing of 36 contributing authors. The book is currently the standard reference source on the topic throughout the world.

Roy was a world leader in animal genetic resources conservation. He established and maintained a catalogue of poultry stocks at teaching and research institutions in Canada. He was an active member of the FAO/UNEP Expert Panel on Genetic Resources Conservation. Recognizing the genetic dangers in concentrating on high producing but inbred birds, he maintained one of the largest collections of rare poultry stocks in Canada. He was a founder and past-chairman of Rare Breeds International.

He was named a Fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada in 1986 and a Fellow of the Poultry Science Association in 1991. He received the Saskatchewan Poultry Award of Merit in 1993.