BY HARVEY A. WAGNER AND WALKER L. CISLER

James Boyd, past president and honorary member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, died on November 24, 1987.

Dr. Boyd was born in Kanowna, Western Australia, on December 20, 1904, and became an American citizen in October 1925 through the naturalization of his father. He had a long and distinguished career in education, science, technology, engineering, and industry. He received a B.S. in engineering and economics from the California Institute of Technology in 1927, with emphasis on mechanical engineering. He earned his M.Sc. in geophysics and D.Sc. in geology at the Colorado School of Mines, where he taught until 1941.

During World War II, he first served as army representative on the Army and Navy Munitions Board and then on the War Production Board's Program Adjustment Committee; as executive officer to the director of material, Army Service Forces; and as director of the Industry Division of the Office of Military Government for Germany (OMGUS). In these duties, he was a close associate of General Lucius Clay and became known to Walker Cisler. Dr. Boyd received the Legion of Merit with an Oak Leaf Cluster for this service.

Upon his return to the United States in 1946, Dr. Boyd became dean of the faculty at the Colorado School of Mines. In 1947 he was appointed director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. During the Korean War, he served, concurrently, as defense minerals administrator. He became chairman of the White Pines Copper Company in Michigan, a director of the Detroit Edison Company, and closely associated with Walker Cisler and Harvey Wagner in the development of nuclear power for the generation of electricity. He was strongly in support of the Atoms for Peace program.

Dr. Boyd left government service in 1951 to assume the position of exploration manager with the Kennecott Copper Corporation, where he was named vice-president in 1955. In 1960 he became president of Copper Range Company and chairman of the board of directors in 1970. In 1971 he was appointed executive director of the National Commission on Materials Policy in Washington, D.C. The commission published an extensive study and report in the 1973, Material Needs and the Environment Today and Tomorrow. He then became chairman of the Materials Advisory Panel of the Office of Technology Assessment, and a consultant to government and industry.

Dr. Boyd was awarded the Hoover Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1975. He received the Charles F. Rand Award of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) in 1963 and distinguished alumnus awards of the California Institute of Technology in 1967 and the Colorado School of Mines in 1949. He delivered the Jackling Lecture before the Society of Mining Engineers of AIME (SME- AIME) in 1967, the ASM and TMS-AIME Distinguished Lectureship in Materials and Society to the American Society for Metals (ASM) and The Metallurgical Society (TMS) in 1973, and the Edward Orton, Jr., Memorial Lecture to the American Ceramic Society in 1974. In 1973 he was awarded the Ben H. Parker Memorial Medal of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, of which he was vice-president in 1966. The University of California, Berkeley, has published a history of James Boyd's life, entitled Minerals and Critical Materials Management: Military and Government Administrator and Mining Executive, 1941–1987.

Dr. Boyd was a director of the Detroit Edison Company, New Jersey Zinc, Felmont Petroleum, Copper Development Association, and the International Copper Research Company.

Dr. Boyd was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 1967. He was active in the affairs of the Academy for many years, and was also very active in professional societies relating to the metals and mining industries. He published many articles on matters relating to mining and the metals industry.

He was first reader at the First Church of Christ Scientist in Carmel, California. Jim Boyd was a devoted family man and is survived by his second wife, Clemence, and four sons by his first wife, Ruth.

The citation that accompanied Dr. Boyd's D. C. Jackling Award from SME- AIME summarized very well his contributions to engineering in particular and to society in general: "For his eminent academic and administrative leadership; significant contributions as a public servant; imaginative guidance in the field of mineral exploration; and steadfast perseverance in applying science and logic to mining geology, mineral research, and technology."