Alan Stephenson Boyd

Infobox Officeholder
name =Alan Stephenson Boyd

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order =1st
office =United States Secretary of Transportation
term_start =January 16, 1967
term_end =January 20, 1969cite web|url=http://www.flahistory.net/January.htm|title=Today in Florida History for January|accessdate=2007-08-16|]
deputy =
president =Lyndon B. Johnson
predecessor =None
successor =John A. Volpe
birth_date = Birth date and age|1922|7|20|mf=y
birth_place = Jacksonville, Florida
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Alan Stephenson Boyd (born July 20, 1922) was the first United States Secretary of Transportation, appointed by Lyndon Johnson.

Early life

Boyd was born on July 20, 1922, in Jacksonville, Florida. He served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He graduated from from the University of Florida in 1941, and received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia in 1948. [cite web| url=http://www.nndb.com/people/378/000029291/| title=Alan S. Boyd| work=Notable Names Database| publisher=Soylent Communications| year=2008| accessdate=2008-07-07| ] He practiced law in Florida, and was on a commission exploring the regulation of the transportation industry.

Later life

He and his wife Flavil had one son, Mark Boyd. He has two grandchildren, Heather and Alan Boyd. The latter was named after him.

Alan S. Boyd retired to Florida and later moved to Edmonds, Washington.

Public service

He was appointed to the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1959 by Dwight Eisenhower and promoted to chairman by John F. Kennedy. He helped the airline industry by standardizing fare reductions, and by approving government subsidies to encourage airline service for smaller cities. He was appointed undersecretary of commerce for transportation in 1965 by Lyndon Johnson. He was unpopular with labor leaders when he advocated reducing government restrictions on the maritime industry, and when he denounced featherbedding by railroad workers. Boyd was part of a committee that lobbied for the creation of the United States Department of Transportation, bringing together many government agencies related to the transportation industry.

Boyd became the first Secretary of Transportation in November 1966. In that capacity he worked on a huge variety of areas including airports, the air traffic control system, automobile safety, driver education, alcoholism, and the highway beautification program (a pet project of first lady Lady Bird Johnson). One of his sources of power was control over spending on the interstate highways. He was unsuccessful in trying to encourage passenger train service.

Private industry

When the Richard M. Nixon administration took power, Boyd left the government and became the president of the Illinois Central Railroad, a position he held from 1969 to 1972.cite web|author=Stover, John F., Purdue University|url=http://www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v008/p0055-p0060.pdf|title=The Management of the Illinois Central Railroad in the 20th Century|format=PDF|accessdate=2006-02-09|] The government investigated the potential conflict of interest because the railroad received aid from Boyd's department before he resigned, but no wrongdoing was found. Boyd was later the president of Amtrak [cite journal|journal=Time|title=Ax for Amtrak|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947026,00.html?promoid=googlep|date=1979-03-19|accessdate=2007-08-16] until June 20, 1982, and the president of Airbus Industries. In 1979 he became the chairman of Warner Blue & Mahan, a Washington D.C. based consulting firm working on new technology ventures.

References

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