Alan Stephenson Boyd (July 20, 1922October 18, 2020) was an American attorney and transportation executive who led several large

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

s and also served the

U.S. Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executi ...

in various transportation-related positions. He was the first

United States Secretary of Transportation The United States secretary of transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to transportation. The secre ...

, appointed by

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

. Additionally, he served in executive positions with the

Civil Aeronautics Board The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1940 from a split of the Civil Aeronautics Authority and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services (including scheduled passe ...

, the

U.S. Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econo ...

, and was a president of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

Early life and education

Boyd was born in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, on July 20, 1922, to Clarence and Elizabeth (Stephenson) Boyd. His maternal great-grandfather was John Stephenson, a coachbuilder who invented and patented the first streetcar. Boyd's father died when he was two years old. He graduated from Macclenny–Glen High School in 1939, and went on to study at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

. However, he dropped out at the end of his

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

year. He subsequently joined the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

in 1942 and remained there through the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Boyd married Flavil Juanita Townsend, a high school teacher, on April 3, 1943. Together, they had one son (Mark). After leaving the service in 1945, Boyd returned to college and received his Bachelor of Laws from the

University of Virginia School of Law The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 as part of his "academical village", and now ...

in 1948.

Career

Early positions

Boyd practiced law in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, and was on a commission exploring the regulation of the transportation industry. He was appointed to the

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

in 1959. He was promoted to chairman of that board by

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

. He helped the airline industry by standardizing fare reductions and by approving government subsidies to encourage airline service for smaller cities. He was appointed

Under secretary of commerce for transportation A United States Under Secretary of Commerce is one of several positions in the United States Department of Commerce, serving under the United States Secretary of Commerce. History In June 1939, Edward J. Noble was appointed the first Under Secret ...

in 1965 by

. He was unpopular with labor leaders when he advocated reducing government restrictions on the maritime industry, and when he denounced

featherbedding Featherbedding is the practice of hiring more workers than are needed to perform a given job, or to adopt work procedures which appear pointless, complex and time-consuming merely to employ additional workers. The term " make-work" is sometimes us ...

by railroad workers. Boyd was part of a committee that lobbied for the creation of the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...

, bringing together many government agencies related to the transportation industry.

Secretary of Transportation

Boyd became the first Secretary of Transportation in November 1966. In that capacity he worked in many areas including airports, the air traffic control system, automobile safety, driver education, alcoholism, and the highway beautification program (a pet project of first lady

Lady Bird Johnson Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (; December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. She had previously been Second Lady of the United States from 1961 to 196 ...

). One of his sources of power was holding funding control over the interstate highways. He was unsuccessful in trying to encourage passenger train service. When

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

became United States president in January 1969, Boyd left the Transportation Department to become the president of the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, ...

, a position he held from 1969 to 1972. The federal government investigated the potential conflict of interest because that railroad had received aid from Boyd's department before he resigned, but no wrongdoing was found. Boyd was later the president of

until June 20, 1982, and the president of Airbus Industrie. He became the chairman of Warner Blue & Mahan, a

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

–based consulting firm working on new technology ventures, in 1994.

Later life and death

After Boyd retired, he and his wife moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. He received the Tony Jannus Award for his contributions to commercial aviation in 1994. He also received the 2009 Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement from ''

Aviation Week & Space Technology ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'', often abbreviated ''Aviation Week'' or ''AW&ST'', is the flagship magazine of the Aviation Week Network, a division of Informa. The weekly magazine is available in print and online, reporting on the aeros ...

''. The citation read: "... for his lifelong service to aviation, including shaping policy in the U.S." Boyd published an autobiography, ''A Great Honor: My Life Shaping 20th Century Transportation'' in August 2016. Boyd died on October 18, 2020, at a retirement home in

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

, Seattle. He was 98, and suffered from failing eyesight in the last five years of life.

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Alan S. 1922 births 2020 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century American railroad executives Amtrak presidents Florida Democrats Florida lawyers Illinois Central Railroad Lyndon B. Johnson administration cabinet members 20th-century United States government officials Military personnel from Florida People from Edmonds, Washington United States Army Air Forces soldiers United States Under Secretaries of Commerce Secretaries of transportation of the United States University of Florida alumni University of Virginia School of Law alumni Writers from Jacksonville, Florida American autobiographers
"Secretary of Transportation Speeches" finding aid, National Transportation Library Archives