Bill Boyd
Born: September 13, 1945
Died: Sunday June 16, 2024
William Robert Boyd was born in Glasgow on 13th September 1945. Bill was brought up in Chryston and Muirhead, attending Chryston school, before going on to study at Coatbridge College where he developed a keen interest in electrical engineering. Bill joined the Post Office Telephone Department, a part of the civil service (now BT), and studied at night to increase his academic qualifications at Stow College and Alan Glens High School, and gained the rank of Technical Officer.
Whilst working in the large Pitt Street Communications Switching Centre, Bill met his wife-to-be, Kathleen in 1964. Meeting Kathleen was by far the best thing that ever happened to him in his whole life, he always maintained.
Bill and Kathleen married in 1967 and bought their first house in Bearsden, but the lure of adventure and a life less ordinary led them to emigrate some five years later to South Africa and Rhodesia. A love of Africa and its people led an initial three year contract to culminate in a stay of some 27 years.
One of the many highlights of Bill’s career was the management and successful completion of the communications infrastructure at the new Johannesburg Academic Hospital. This was the largest hospital complex in the southern hemisphere at that time, and Bill received accolades from the Transvaal Provincial Administration for the successful execution being on time and in budget. Funnily enough, it was at this same hospital in Johannesburg two years later that his sons, Robin and Stephen, were born.
Bill's love of life meant he took a great interest in many things, from history to bird-fancying, running marathons and even owning a restaurant, all whilst raising his young family and working on international projects.
Read more
Robert Dalrymple: sleeves-up farmer who was lynchpin of Ballantrae
John Keane obituary: Businessman was key in Celtic’s darkest hour
After many delightful years in Africa, Bill then brought his family back to Scotland in 1995, settling in Cumbernauld, where Stephen joined the Royal Navy and Robin attended Edinburgh University, before both became successful deep sea divers.
Bill and Kathy never could resist the pull of Africa, retiring to Durban a decade later, before upping sticks to Scotland again, but returned every few years to holiday back in their beloved country. After a very busy 40 plus years in the fast-moving international Internet and Communications Technology sector, Bill finally settled in Darvel, Ayrshire, where he continued to enjoy what he called his golden years and laid-back lifestyle, making friends, tending his garden and playing with his grandchildren.
Bill is survived by his brother Robin, sister Sally, two sons and five grandchildren.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here