Gerald Boyd, a trailblazing N.Y. Times editor, dies at 56 from lung cancer

By Colleen Long
Associated Press
(November 25, 2006) When Gerald M. Boyd was named managing editor of the New York Times in 2001, he knew he would set precedents: He was the first black journalist to hold that post, one of the top jobs at one of the world's most distinguished newspapers.

"I'm not about to dwell on the firstness of all of this," Mr. Boyd, who died Thursday at age 56 of lung cancer at his Harlem home, said of the appointment. "But if somewhere a kid of color who reads about this can smile tomorrow or dream a little bigger dream, then that makes me very happy."

Mr. Boyd was found to have cancer in February but kept the condition secret from most of his friends and colleagues, said his wife, Robin Stone. They also had a 10-year-old son, Zachary.

"Every wife would say she'd want her husband to be known as a great person, wonderful husband, father and good citizen," his wife, a fellow journalist, said from her home. "But as I've said before, as a journalist, he was my hero, and I know he was a hero to many journalists in the profession."

But the Times would also make less welcome headlines during Mr. Boyd's tenure. Two years after his appointment, he resigned amid a reporter's plagiarism scandal.

A native of St. Louis, Mr. Boyd joined the Times in 1983 after serving as White House correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. At 28, he was the youngest journalist chosen for Harvard University's prestigious Nieman fellowship, the Times reported.

According to the newspaper, Mr. Boyd was the first black journalist to hold many of his various jobs there, including city editor. As deputy managing editor for news, he oversaw the 2000 series "How Race Is Lived in America," which won a Pulitzer Prize.

Over the years, he led or helped lead coverage that won nine Pulitzer Prizes.

As he rose through the Times' management ranks, he became known as demanding and determined.

"He knew how to mobilize a reporting team and surround a story so that nothing important was missed," executive editor Bill Keller said in the Times. "He knew how to motivate and inspire. And, tough and demanding as he could be, he had a huge heart. He left the paper under sad circumstances, but despite all of that he left behind a great reservoir of respect and affection."

Boyd and former executive editor Howell Raines were brought down by the scandal over Jayson Blair, a journalist they had groomed, and criticism of their management style. Mr. Boyd resigned in 2003.

In the subsequent months, he said he had made a mutual decision with the newspaper to resign after the Times discovered that Blair had plagiarized material, invented quotations, and written stories using datelines of places he had never been. The scandal exposed a deeply discontented staff that had lost confidence in newsroom leadership.

Mr. Boyd shared the blame and responsibility for Blair's downfall but said management did not realize how deeply troubled Blair was until it was too late.

Had management known, "Jayson Blair simply would not have been writing for the New York Times," Mr. Boyd said at a speech in Dallas in August 2003. He dismissed as "absolutely untrue" criticism that Blair had been promoted and his problems overlooked because the reporter was black.

After he resigned, Mr. Boyd was involved in several projects, including writing a column for Universal Press Syndicate to help people understand how newsroom decisions are made.

He joined Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism for a semester in 2004 to develop case-study curriculum materials, and he had been working on a memoir.


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