Was managing editor of New York Times
Of the St. Louis American
In late January 1977, Gerald Boyd trudged through a slushy snow on a cold Saturday afternoon to Forest Park Community College. A reporter with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, this was one of few days he had to himself.
But he and other black journalists from the area were launching the Minority Journalism Workshop on this particular winter morning.
Black students from the city and St. Louis County would be offered something unheard of in American journalism: a structured eight-week workshop that taught the basics of print, TV and radio journalism.
Boyd then watched as graduates of the program went on to some of the best journalism schools in the nation and successful careers in the field.
Boyd passed away on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 23, 2006) at his Harlem home after a bout with lung cancer.
His professional colleagues and the former workshop students will carry Boyd’s influence with them for the rest of their lives. He is being remembered as a groundbreaking journalist who rose to the No. 2 position at the New York Times and a man whose legacy is secured by the dozens of African-American reporters, editors and managing editors he helped to create.
Born October 3, 1950 in St. Louis, Boyd was a graduate of Soldan High School. He traveled to the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he majored in journalism. A Post-Dispatch hire, Boyd would soon team with George Curry in that paper’s newsroom.
“He was so dedicated to being better than good. He wanted to be the best,” Curry said of his close friend.
Curry says Boyd’s goal was to become editor of the New York Times, arguably the world’s most influential newspaper.
Boyd would fall a step short of that dream. A black reporter named Jayson Blair fractured the Times newsroom, and the scandal of his fabrications led to Boyd’s resignation as managing editor.
His journey to New York began at the Post-Dispatch as a clerk. He rose to the rank of reporter and quickly made a name for himself in the stodgy and sometimes racist St. Louis journalism community of the time with his aggressive and accurate reporting of City Hall.
He would later be promoted to Washington correspondent for the Post.
He joined the New York Times in 1983 as its White House correspondent. At age 28, he became the youngest person to be named a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University. He was lead editor of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on race and was named managing editor of the Times on Sept. 5, 2001, making him the first African American to hold the position.
Former Post-Dispatch editor and editorial board member Bob Joiner said Boyd “looked at people like myself as role models, because we were older. But in a way, he was our role model. He took the career step that none of us took.”
He said Boyd had an “intangible ability” to bring out the best in people.
“You don’t just become leader of the New York Times newsroom. There has to be something innate inside you. Gerald had that,” Joiner said.
Named managing editor just six days before the 9/11 terrorists attacks, Joiner said “the editing he did was fantastic. He was on the job. He didn’t win a Pulitzer Prize, but his hand was all over that work. He made those things happen.”
“He was my hero,” says Ann Scales, Boston Globe Style editor and a graduate of the first workshop in 1977.
“Gerald was a great teacher. He was beyond generous in giving his time and talent to kids like me who grew up in North St. Louis and wanted to be a writer.”
Scales said she “followed Gerald’s lead” and became a Washington correspondent for the Globe.
“I would not be a journalist, doing what I’m doing, without Gerald Boyd.”
Mark Russell, Orlando Sentinel managing editor, echoed that sentiment, calling Boyd “a towering figure.”
“He had a certain aura about him that really went beyond his years in journalism.”
Russell, a 1979 graduate of the workshop, said Boyd “treated us like professionals from day one. George and he were really hard on us; they drilled the basics into us. They would read your stories out loud. It was tough.”
“While you feared him, you couldn’t get enough. He’d tear you down, then build you back up. He taught us we could be special.”
Being torn down
On June 5, 2003, New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines and Boyd resigned in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal.
Blair admitted to fabricating dozens of stories, which included fictional characters and made-up events.
Several reporters and editors were outraged that Blair had been allowed to frequently make errors in his stories and miss deadlines. Blair had been hired at the Times under a program designed to attract more racial diversity to the newspaper.
Boyd steadfastly denied that Blair was treated differently than other reporters because of his race. He also was deeply hurt that many reporters and media outlets labeled Boyd as Blair’s mentor simply because they were both black.
A St. Louis workshop student he did mentor is Marcia Davis, a Style section editor at the Washington Post.
“How, after Boyd had proved himself for so many years, could his integrity, and the integrity of all black journalists, be called into question simply because of race?” Davis asked.
“Boyd was a black man, and a black man who cared about race in America, but he was not crippled by it.”
During a speech at Washington University following his resignation on Oct. 2, 2003, Boyd said he had absolutely no regrets about how he handled the Blair situation.
He smiled at one point and said, “I don’t play favorites. Just ask some of my workshop students.”
While he was not a workshop student, Leonard Reynolds, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of the American, said Boyd was instrumental in his business journalism career.
“I had known Gerald from high school and college, but it was during the time that Gerald was covering City Hall (from a 3′ x 6′ office under the stairs in the
rotunda) that he became my mentor,” Reynolds said.
“As a police officer for the City of St. Louis, I would often stop by to visit Gerald whenever I was downtown. We talked about crime and politics – our work of the day.”
He said Boyd asked him if he had ever thought about a career in the newspaper industry.
“Some discussions later, and to my surprise, Gerald actually picked the telephone up, called the HR director and told him that I would be an ideal candidate for advertising sales at the Post-Dispatch. About two months and eight interviews later, I was working in advertising sales.”
Boyd on Boyd
In an interview on the American Society of Newspaper Editors website, Boyd describes himself as “Occasionally regarded as reserved, but that’s a major misreading. I’m quite passionate (especially about journalism), humorous and caring.”
He listed “people who worry too much about what others think,” as his pet peeve.
Harking back to the days of the journalism workshop, he offers this advice to journalists and all young people.
“Before you can soar, you need your feet planted firmly on the ground. That means a strong sense of self and a determination to be true to yourself, even if it means making decisions that are risky or controversial. And that means having real passion about what you do, so much so that you are consumed by it. And that means seeking balance between your career and those other things that make life special.”
Local memorial planned
In addition to his wife, Robin Boyd, Gerald Boyd is survived by his 10-year-old son, Zachary.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Gerald Boyd’s name to the University of Missouri School of Journalism: Mizzou Gift Processing, 109 Reynolds Alumni Center, Columbia, Mo., 65211.
Donations can be made online at: http://formizzou.missouri.edu/give/index.php.
At press time, a St. Louis memorial service was being planned for Saturday, December 9. The time and location will be announced online at www.stlamerican.com immediately and also in next week’s American.
There will be a public memorial from 6-8 p.m. tonight (Nov. 30, 2006) at the Schomburg Center, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard.
City editor Alvin A. Reid is a graduate of the 1977 and 1978 Minority Journalism Workshops. He also credits Boyd with helping launch his journalism career. “He told me I had what it would take and that I would do well. I never doubted myself in any newsroom at anytime because of Gerald Boyd.”
