William Perry Boyd

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Bob Hasbrouck on November 19, 2013:

Perry and I were roommates during our last two years as cadets and stayed at least loosely in touch thereafter. He was friendly, calm, deliberate, conscientious, morally upright, and got along well with all who knew him. Academically he was in the middle of the class, but was #1 in history, which had always been a favorite topic for him. I assumed he would get an advanced degree in history and return to West Point to teach it. Much to my surprise, he instead got a degree in nuclear physics and worked in the Defense Atomic Support Agency for the following three years. And in retirement he taught high school physics for fifteen years. But this was just an expansion of Perry's pursuit of knowledge. He retained his life-long love of history as well. And he was also very artistic with a love and skill for painting which developed early and was reinforced in retirement. It was a terrible shock to all of us when he had a stroke shortly after attending our 50th reunion. He was physically fit with no indication of health problems, and it was dismaying to find him suddenly partially paralyzed and unable to speak, although mentally alert. He regained a very limited speaking ability but was unable to achieve much else in the way of recovery. For such a talented man it had to be a very frustrating existence,from which he is now released. But we will remember him for the warm and gracious person he was. It was my privilege to benefit from his lasting friendship.

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