[A Tribute to Gerald Michael Boyd by George E. Curry, Editor-in-Chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and BlackPressUSA.com, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, N.Y., November 30, 2006]

I am here tonight to re-claim a friend. I am here to restore his good name. I am here to set the record straight. Some of the things I am about to say may not be politically correct. But I don’t care about being politically correct. When it comes to discussing Gerald, I just want to be correct. We all owe him that.
If you detect anger in my voice, it’s because I am angry. Very angry. I am not angry at God for taking Gerald away from us at such an early age; I do not question the Lord’s judgment or His wisdom. Instead, I thank Him for the time He allowed us to share Gerald on this earth. But I am angry over the way Gerald’s career is being framed by many of our colleagues.
For those of you who don’t know me, I was a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch when Gerald joined the staff after graduating from the University of Missouri. He and I started the first NABJ-chapter workshop for high school students in 1977 – next year will mark 30 years. I lived across the street from Gerald and Sheila in St. Louis. On weekends, he and I played touch football by day and cards – notably Dirty Hearts – by night. Not only did we train young Black students in St. Louis, we taught every summer in a workshop at the University of Missouri under the direction of Dr. Robert Knight, one of Gerald’s former professors. Gerald presented me with NABJ’s “Journalist of the Year” award in 2003 and just before he resigned from The New York Times, I came up to have breakfast with my friend and we’ve remained in touch since then. I’ve known him before and after the New York Times. In fact, I’ve known him his entire professional career. Not only have I known him as a journalist, I have known him as a friend. And if you were his friend, there was nothing he would not do for you.
As one of his friends, I watched with pride as he returned to his hometown paper and covered City Hall. We were all happy for him when was assigned to the Post-Dispatch’s Washington Bureau. His friends celebrated his winning a Neiman Fellowship. We applauded and sent him notes of congratulation when he covered the White House for the New York Times. We teased him when Ronald Reagan would recognize him at press conferences, calling him “Gerry.” We were ecstatic when he was named managing editor of The Times.
By any measurement, Gerald had an extremely successful career. And we, as his friends, should not allow those in our field to sully his reputation now that he can no longer speak for himself.
In case some of you rode the short bus to school, let me be more direct. It is irresponsible, in writing about Gerald’s career, to mention that he lost his job at The Times because of Jayson Blair before you mention that he is dead or what he accomplished as a journalist. It is unfair to act like Blair, that serial liar, was an appendage of Gerald Boyd. Gerald was not his direct supervisor and Gerald certainly did not fabricate any stories. But you’d never know that from some of the coverage of his death, including that of the New York Times.
In one account, the Associated Press even substituted Blair’s name for Gerald’s. It seems that my friend cannot even go to his grave peacefully without his own colleagues besmirching his reputation.
I stand here tonight to reclaim Gerald’s good name. The only reason I am mentioning Jayson Blair is because journalists are trying to join Gerald and Jayson at the hip and I, for one, will not allow it. And nor should you.Sure, any major story about Gerald Boyd should mention the Blair incident, but that shouldn’t supercede or overshadow Gerald’s accomplishments as a first-rate journalist. Gerald was a victim of Jayson Blair, not his protector.
Why should Gerald be forever linked to Jason Blair? Blair joins a long list of discredited journalists: Stephen Glass, Patricia Smith, Mike Barnicle, Bob Green and Jack Kelley, among them. Yet, you can’t name any of their editors. If those editors are not linked to their respective culprits, then Gerald should not be perpetually linked to Jayson Blair. And even if he is associated with Blair, it should not be so prominently mentioned.
When the Blair scandal first broke there were reports that Gerald may have extended Jayson special favors because both were African-Americans. Anyone thinking that certainly doesn’t know Gerald Boyd.
If anything, Gerald was harder on young Black reporters because he wanted to prepare them for the slings and arrows they would later face in their career. When Gerald and I started the workshop in 1977, he was rough on Black high school students. If he didn’t cuddle teenagers, there was no chance that he was going to baby an adult. If you don’t believe he was tough on teenagers, I can give you some references.
Ask Marcia Davis, an editor at the Washington Post. Ask Ann Scales, an editor and former White House correspondent for the Boston Globe. Both of them are here tonight. Ask Bennie Currie, a former reporter for the Associated Press. Ask Russ Mitchell of CBS News. Ask Andre Jackson, business editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Ask any of those he mentored.
Gerald cared deeply for them and all young people. In fact, I would argue that Gerald’s greatest contribution to journalism was not becoming managing editor of the New York Times; he recognized that others, especially Paul Delaney, should have had that job before him. Gerald’s greatest contribution to journalism was that he introduced hundreds of young people to our profession and because he was hard on them, they have excelled as journalists.
Let me share just a couple of notes I received this week. They were not sent to so that I could read them in public, but I don’t think the students will mind my sharing them with you.
Ben Holden participated in our workshops in St. Louis and followed Gerald to Mizzou. Ben is now vice president and executive editor of the Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Ga. He said, “Gerald was one of the first people (along with you, of course) to teach me about journalistic objectivity. I asked him what he thought of Reagan and he simply would not say, no matter how many different ways I asked. I never forgot that.”
Mark Russell, another workshop and Mizzou graduate, is managing editor of the Orlando Sentinel. His first job out of college was with the Wall Street Journal. Mark wrote: “As a snot-nose teen growing up in north St. Louis in the late 1970s, I dared to dream that I could one day become a journalist. And Gerald, George, Chris Moore, Ken Cooper and others were there to guide me, challenge me, cut me down when necessary and then just as quickly, build me back up. When I became managing editor two years ago – in 2004 – I knew that I’d have to uphold a powerful tradition of being an excellent journalist and a good man. After all, I had the best role model: Gerald Boyd.”
Those are just a couple of examples of the impact that Gerald has had on a generation of journalists. That’s his true legacy. If Gerald were joined at the hip with anyone outside of his wife, Robin, and son, Zachary, it has been these former students. That’s what we should be celebrating.
Finally, the angriest I ever saw Gerald Boyd in the 33 years that I’ve known him was when the Janet Cooke scandal broke at the Washington Post. He was angry that we had put all this time and effort into opening doors for young people, and this imposter had made it more difficult for young Black journalists to advance their careers.
Well, I am not going to let another imposter – or our industry – tarnish Gerald’s reputation. We know of his personal accomplishments and even more important, we know what he has done for others. That’s the real Gerald Boyd. That’s the Gerald Boyd we’re here to reclaim. And that’s the Gerald Michael Boyd we’ll always remember.###

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