Denny Boyd
William Dennis
(Denny) Boyd passed away
Denny was a respected author and journalist and radio broadcaster for 30 years with the Vancouver Sun/CJOR.
Denny wanted to be remembered as "A Good Read".
Survived by his daughters Linda, Laura, Lisa, Nancy, son Lenny, and six grandchildren.
A Memorial Service will be held at
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Reporter/columnist Vancouver Sun 1957-99;
sports commentator CJOR Vancouver 1972-77; co-author with Brian Scrivener Legends
of Autumn: The Glory Years of Canadian Football 1997; author Denny Boyd:
in my own words & The Vancouver Canucks story; recipient Bruce
Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award 1997; columnist
***
Denny
Boyd a long-serving print/radio journalist renowned for his wry observations of
public personalities in sports and politics, and for sharing with the public
the trials and successes of his own struggles with illness. Mr. Boyd began his
writing career as a sports writer and editor and worked his way up to become a
daily news columnist, detailing the characters and adventures in
In
1997, he was honoured with the Bruce Hutchison
Lifetime Achievement Award.
A
long-time columnist, Boyd was born in the now-vanished B.C. mining town of
Boyd's
two hockey books are The History of Hockey in B.C. and also Pros and Cons: The
Vancouver Canucks Story (a light-hearted look at the first three years of the
franchise). As a journalist for the Vancouver Sun, Boyd effectively replaced
the The Sun's high profile gossip columnist Jack
Wassermann who once published a cookbook called Vancouver on 5,000 Calories A
Day, in 1971. Boyd also published a cookbook called Man on the Range.
Semi-retired in
He
received the Order of British Columbia in 2005.
***
From
the North Shore News (edited)
Denny
was a Jack Webster Awards judge and presenter for almost 10 years, making it
all but certain that he wouldn't win one, and thus suffer the awkward conflict
of having to laud his fine talents while presenting an award to himself. "I've been getting up there year after
year and holding up the award - smiling with my teeth and not my eyes and
saying, 'Oh congratulations, you're just so worthy, baaaarrfff,'
" said Denny wryly, but not ‘ryely’, since he no
longer touches rye or any spirituous liquor.
He does recall the days when he drank martinis, or, as he wittily
prefers to remember it, ‘bobbing for olives’.
“I'm
winning the Hutch -- given my feelings for Bruce -- I mean, I always wanted to
win the Hutch!” That award honors one of the most distinguished and beloved
newspapermen in these parts, the late editor emeritus of The Vancouver Sun. As
everyone knows, the Webster Awards salute Jack Webster. I hope that when Denny
gets the ribbon he recounts the story of how warmly he congratulated another
outstanding former North Shore resident, sports columnist Archie McDonald, when
he won an award ... and then another, and another. Unexpurgated, it makes a
hilarious story. Tell your maiden aunt to close her ears if he tells it.
***
‘Boyd's
Town’ by Denny Boyd
(
“What
a savage animal the mainstream media has become. All the characteristics of a beast
of the jungle are there. They are covered with a layer of sophistication,
honeyed smiles and good tailoring. But under all that are teeth and claws and
relentless obsession to track, capture and devour. The appetite is never
satiated. They call it news. But the news is a compendium of events that
matter, that have an important message, the potential to change our daily
lives. What is passed on as news today is rapid-fire, bang-bang titillation of
the flimsiest material that can be concocted, twisted, spun and trolled across
a screen or a front page, 24-7.”