On March 30, 2021, William E. Boyd, loving husband and father, passed away at the age of 98.
Bill was born in Auxvasse, Missouri, to Frank and Ruth Bailey Boyd, whose families had settled in the area in the early 1800s.
Bill was raised on the family farm, enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942. He served as a B-17 bombardier and was shot down over Germany on July 21, 1944. Bill spent the remainder of the war in Stalag Luft I and received a Purple Heart due to taking flak in his right shoulder.
After liberation, Bill graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Business Administration in 1949. He took a sales position for Mex-R-Co Refractories, subsequently purchased by Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. He was transferred to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he met Marion Campbell. They were married in October of 1953. Bill was transferred to Mexico, Missouri in 1959, where the family lived until he was transferred to corporate headquarters in Oakland, California in 1973. He and his family settled in Moraga.
Bill worked for National Refractories after retiring from Kaiser, then served as a consultant until fully retiring at the age of 80.
Due to his wartime injury Bill learned to play golf left-handed, an activity he enjoyed into his 90s, when he stopped in order to stay with and care for his beloved wife.
Bill was preceded in death by his parents and four siblings: Kathryn, Helen, Tom, and Frank, Jr. He leaves behind his wife, Marion (Molly); five children: Ed, Greg, Andrew, Rod, and Libby McLaughlin; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Bill was an elder in the Presbyterian church, taught Sunday school, was a Boy Scout leader, a Shriner, a Rotarian, and tirelessly served in many other capacities. He always remembered everyone's name, and he had a gracious word and a warm smile for everyone. He cared for his beloved wife until his dying day. He will be missed by all who knew him. |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA