[Deathwatch] Gerald M. Boyd, former New York Times managing editor,56

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

And even more thanks to a long time reader for this one...

Ex-NY Times Editor Gerald Boyd Dies
NEW YORK, Nov. 23, 2006 (AP) 

Gerald M. Boyd, who became the first black managing editor of The New
York Times and was forced to resign two years later amid a reporter's
plagiarism scandal, has died. He was 56.

Boyd had been diagnosed with lung cancer in February and died Thursday
at his home, said his wife, Robin Stone. He had been sick for most of
the year and had kept the condition private from most friends and
colleagues, Stone said.

"Every wife would say she'd want her husband to be known as a great
person, wonderful husband, father and good citizen," she 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."

Boyd and executive editor Howell Raines were brought down by the
scandal caused by Jayson Blair, a journalist they had groomed, and
criticism of their management style at one of the world's most
distinguished newspapers. Boyd resigned in 2003.

Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, called Boyd a
friend and colleague. "He was one of us," Keller said in an e-mail to
Times staff.

According to the newspaper's Web site, Boyd's career began during the
civil rights era and inspired generations of black journalists.

He was the first black journalist to work the many jobs he held at The
Times, 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.

At a lecture in St. Louis a few years ago, according to the Times' Web
site, he told the audience, "Throughout my life I have enjoyed both the
blessing and the burden of being the first black this and the first
black that, and, like many minorities and women who succeed, I've often
felt alone."

A native of St. Louis, he joined the Times in 1983 after serving as
White House correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. At 28, he
was also the youngest journalist chosen for a prestigious Nieman
fellowship at Harvard, The Times reported.

Since his resignation, Boyd wrote a weekly column for Universal Press
Syndicate to help people understand how newsroom decisions are made.

"I just think the more we can as journalists try to explain what
happens in terms of decision-making, to pull back curtains and describe
what goes on in newsrooms or in journalism in general, the better we
are," Boyd said in 2004.

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

"I wanted to do everything I could to try to be a positive force in
journalism and try to begin to deal with issues that I saw as
important, such as credibility issues, such as leadership issues and
issues involving diversity," he at the time.

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

Boyd shared the blame and responsibility for Blair's downfall but said
management didn't 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," Boyd said at a speech made 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.

Boyd said it was disturbing that people would read more into the
situation because of race.

"I would be lying if I didn't say that I can't help wonder why after
all these years of struggling to establish our work and credibility in
the newsroom ? to be seen as top-notch journalists ? as soon as
controversy arises, an African-American reporter and an
African-American senior editor are automatically viewed as suspect," he
said at the time.

He is survived by his wife and 10-year-old son Zachary.



November 23, 2006
Gerald M. Boyd, Former Times Managing Editor, Dies at 56
By FELICITY BARRINGER

Gerald M. Boyd, who rose to become managing editor of The New York
Times, then was forced to resign in a newsroom revolt after a young
reporter was exposed as a fabricator, died yesterday in Manhattan. He
was 56.

The cause was lung cancer, said his wife, Robin Stone. Mr. Boyd had
kept the condition private from most friends and colleagues.

Mr. Boyd's career, which spanned the end of the civil rights era to the
beginning of the Internet era, was built on competitiveness and a
determination to get the story right. As he rose in prominence, he
became a beacon of possibility for aspiring African-American
journalists.

Giving a lecture in honor of one of his early editors in St. Louis a
few years ago, he told the hometown audience, "Throughout my life I
have enjoyed both the blessing and the burden of being the first black
this and the first black that, and, like many minorities and women who
succeed, I've often felt alone."

He was, in fact, the first African-American to serve in many of the
jobs he held at The Times, including metropolitan editor and managing
editor. At 28, he was also the youngest journalist chosen for a
prestigious Nieman fellowship at Harvard.



Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary