Roll Call Tribute

Allen Family Funeral Options obituary
2120 W. Spring Creek Pkwy
Plano, TX 75023
Phone: 972-596-8200
Fax: 972-596-8221

Joshua Rieff Boyd, Jr.
August 1st, 1934 ~ November 11th, 2015

Joshua Rieff Boyd, Jr., 81, of Plano, died Wednesday, November 11, 2015, in Plano, Texas. He was born August 1, 1934 in Bruceton, Tennessee, the son of Joshua Rieff Boyd and Annie Louise Devault Boyd. Mr. Boyd grew up in the “Atomic City” of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He was offered college scholarships for cello but decided to major in Spanish instead. He also received a scholarship to experience life in Cuba, a two-year teaching assistantship at the University of Illinois, a Fulbright for study in Spain, and a National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship for the study of Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin. He held degrees from Berea College, the University of Illinois, University of Incarnate Word, the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Doctor of Education from Texas A&M University. Mr. Boyd served in the Signal Corp of the United States Army, where he was stationed in Saran, France, from 1954-1956. He worked for the United States Information Agency Service in Brazil from 1966 to 1968. He also worked for 27 years as a high school counselor at Holmes High School in San Antonio and taught English-as-a-Second- Language at various colleges. Mr. Boyd was a member of the Hunter’s Glen Baptist Church of Plano. His passion in life was to provide opportunity for those less fortunate, whether in his own neighborhood, or the English-as-a-Second-Language classes he taught, or his church’s international ministries program. He taught hundreds of people from many nations how to speak, read, and write English so they might enjoy the American dream and become productive members of our great country. Mr. Boyd was able to minister to many people through his teaching and introduce them to the gospel of Christ, especially to those from other nations who had never heard of Jesus. He will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 57 years, Shirley Ann Boyd; son Mark R. Boyd and his wife Millie, of Plano; daughters Karen Hollon and her husband Dwight, of Rosenberg, Texas and Kim Boyd, of Los Angeles, California.; sisters Brenda McLeroy and husband Tom, of Grand Island, Florida, Nancy Perkins, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Jane Fuqua and husband, Mac, of Dalton, Georgia; grandson Zachary Hollon and his wife Molly, of Denver, Colorado and granddaughters Brittany Hollon, of Houston, Texas and MacKenzie Boyd, of Plano. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Sara Ann Boyd Gillespie. The family will receive friends on Monday, November 16, 2015 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Allen Family Funeral Options. Funeral services are Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. at Hunter’s Glen Baptist Church with Rev. Ed Fleming officiating. Interment will follow at Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery at 2:00 p.m. The family asks that any memorials be in the form of contributions to Hunter’s Glen Baptist Church of Plano, 4001 Custer Road, Plano, TX, 75023.