Roy Empey was born at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on August 5, 1882. He began his railroad career as a fireman on the Northwestern Railroad at Kaukauna, Wisconsin, in 1905. Two years later he moved to Green Bay. Then in 1939 he made his permanent residence in Milwaukee until his death at home from a heart attack on Friday, February 11, 1955. He was buried with Masonic rites in Wisconsin Memorial Park, Milwaukee. His only child, Leroy, became an engineer for the State Highway Commission at Green Bay.
During his early years as an engineer, Empey ran trains over many new lines between Green Bay, Manitowoc, Duck Creek, and Eland Junction. He was at the throttle of the first diesel “400” run between Green Bay and Milwaukee on January 12, 1942, and continued on the “400” until he retired in August 1952, after 47 years of railroading.
For 16 years, Empey was chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's John Hickey Lodge No. 266 at Green Bay. For 24 years he was secretary-treasurer of the Brotherhood's Wisconsin State Legislative Board. In its obituary the Green Bay Press Gazette for February 14, 1955, says that Roy Empey was “generally considered the best informed man on labor laws in the state.”
Before 1931 Empey was a lobbyist for his railroad Brotherhood in Madison. He was Brown County Chairman of the Progressive Party and a strong supporter of the La Follettes. He was also campaign manager for John M. Reynolds (State Attorney General, 1927-1933) during three of his election campaigns. In 1931 President Hoover's Secretary of Labor, William N. Doak, appointed Empey Director of the U.S. Employment Service in Wisconsin. With offices in the Federal Building in Milwaukee he served in this position until April 1933.
