Robert Boyd (journalist)
Robert Skinner Boyd (January 11, 1928 – September 20, 2019) was an American journalist who spent most of his career working for the Knight Newspaper Group, spending two decades as the group's Washington bureau chief. He and Clark Hoyt won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for uncovering the fact that Senator Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern's choice for vice president, had had severe psychiatric problems and undergone three shock treatments. Instead of publishing their scoop, they disclosed their findings to McGovern's top advisor, and Eagleton withdrew as the Democratic nominee.[1]
Robert Boyd
September 20, 2019 (aged 91)
American
B.A. and M.A., Harvard University
Journalist and bureau chief
4
Pulitzer Prize, 1973
Early career and education[edit]
Born in Chicago, Boyd was the son of Alden W. Boyd and Mary A. (Skinner) Boyd. Raised as an Episcopalian, he earned a B.A. and M.A. from Harvard University in 1949.[1][2] At Harvard, he studied ancient languages.[3]
Works[edit]
Boyd and David Kraslow collaborated on a novel, A Certain Little Evil, published in 1964.[2]
His book The Decline, but Not Yet the Fall, of the Russia Empire: The Lewis Cass Lectures appeared in 1969.[1]
Honors and awards[edit]
In 1973, Boyd and Clark Hoyt won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting "for their disclosure of United States Senator Thomas Eagleton's history of psychiatric therapy, resulting in his withdrawal as the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 1972."[3]
He was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford.[6]
Personal life[edit]
He married Gloria L. Paulsen in 1949, and they had four children (Tim, Suzy, Peter and Andy). Boyd died from congestive heart failure at a nursing home in Philadelphia on September 20, 2019.[7]