Father Norman Boyd, S.A.: 1933-2015

Graymoor, Garrison, NY—Franciscan Friar of the Atonement Father Norman Boyd, who served at parishes in Bovina, Hereford and Dimmitt in the Diocese of Amarillo, passed away Feb. 10. He was 81 years old.

Mass will be celebrated Thursday, Feb. 19, 10:00am, Eastern Standard Time, at the 3 ^rd Floor Chapel, St. Pius X Building. Burial will follow in the Friars’ Cemetery at Graymoor.

The son of late John T. Boyd and late Elizabeth Dolan Boyd, Norman Boyd was born on Nov. 25, 1933, a native of Philadelphia. He joined the Friars of the Atonement shortly after his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1956. Boyd received his habit in 1958 and took his final vows as a Friar in August 1963. He was ordained in June 1965 at the Immaculate Conception Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington, DC.

Father Boyd’s first assignment was in the parochial ministry at his community’s Brazilian mission of San Sebastiano, Goias, Brazil, remaining there for three years. After a short stint at Graymoor, where he was Director of Ecumenical and Pastoral Affairs, he was assigned to St. Ann’s Church, Bovina, where he served from 1969 to 1972.

In 1973, Father Boyd served at Christ the Redeemer Church in Sterling Park, Va. He went to teach at La Salle Academy in Providence, RI, until 1976, when he became Vocational Director at Graymoor for two years. Father Boyd also served in vocation ministry at Christian Brothers Academy in Lyncroft, NJ for two years.

On Sept, 2, 1980, he was assigned to St. Anthony’s Church, Hereford and on Oct. 23, 1984, was assigned to Immaculate Conception of Mary Church, Dimmitt, where he remained until Oct. 16, 1985. In Hereford, he was Associate Pastor at St. Anthony’s Parish, then Pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in Dimmitt.

In the late 1990s, after a stint in pastoral ministry at the Chapel of Our Savior in Brockton, Mass., Father Boyd returned to Graymoor as an assistant member of the Graymoor Development Department. A year later, he moved to Ormond Beach, Fla., where he served at St. Brendan’s Church and continued work in development until his retirement.

Father Boyd studied philosophy and theology at St. Pius X Seminary in Saranac, NY and Washington, DC. He earned a Master’s degree in Religious Education from Providence College in Rhode Island.

Survivors include a niece and a nephew.