David E. Boyd
Longtime Towson University professor of education and shipwreck historian ‘always had time for his friends’
David E. Boyd, a retired Towson University professor of education who was captivated by the lure of the sea and wrote widely about its ships and shipwrecks, died of heart failure Jan. 17 at his White Hall home. He was 92.
“We had a long relationship and, of course, Ellsworth and my father did,” said Dirk Cussler, son of novelist Clive Cussler, whose many novels were often based on shipwrecks.
“Ellsworth just loved the mystery of shipwrecks and exploring, touching and experiencing the unknown, and connecting with history, the past and people. He was just drawn to the water,” Mr. Cussler said.
David Ellsworth Boyd, son of Walter Boyd Sr., an office machine repairman, and his wife, Mary Edna Dick Boyd, a school teacher, was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton.
After graduating from Baltimore City College, Mr. Boyd worked his way through Washington College as a member of the Ocean City Beach Patrol and a soda jerk during summers.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1954 from Washington College, where he was editor of the school paper and captain of both the track and cross country teams, Mr. Boyd later earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Miami.
He taught at Loch Raven Elementary School before joining the education department in the mid-1960s at what is now Towson University.
“I graduated from Towson in 1969, and met Ellsworth my sophomore year. He was our class adviser and we’ve been friends ever since and that’s more than 50 years,” said Chip Reed.
“He taught us how to teach elementary students and was very good at it. He was very animated and helped develop us,” Mr. Reed said. “He was very helpful and you could always count and depend on him.” Mr. Boyd retired in 1991.
Mr. Boyd was able to combine his professional life with a love of the sea and writing articles on shipwrecks.
“As a youngster, I was always fascinated by the undersea world. I read books and watched films that portrayed exciting underwater adventures. I even wrote a short story about deep sea diving when I was in high school,” Mr. Boyd wrote in an autobiographical profile.
Mr. Boyd’s dream of the undersea world began to come together when he worked as a lifeguard in Ocean City with two other lifeguards who became close friends, Jim Kelly and Lucky Jordan.
After the end of one season in Ocean City, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Jordan, who were eventually joined by Mr. Boyd, went on to work as lifeguards in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, during the winter.
“Jim and Lucky were like Marco Polo, bringing back tales of wondrous things, such as incessant sunshine, attractive girls, a world class beach, and water so clear you could see the bottom in 50 feet,” he wrote. “They told stories about diving and bagging fish and lobster for dinner. They also explored some shipwrecks. I was hooked.”
Another lifeguard introduced Mr. Boyd to the world of scuba diving.
“From that moment on, I knew the underwater world was destined to play a major role in my future,” Mr. Boyd wrote.
One of his earliest articles for Skin Diver Magazine — for whom he would eventually write hundreds of stories — came after an early dive on the SS Sapona, a shipwreck in Bimini in the Bahama Islands.
“It was a World War I freighter with a hull poured from concrete to save on metal during wartime. A fleet of twelve were built, but they didn’t last long,” he wrote. “Even today, the ship remains grounded on a shallow reef, half of it still sitting upright. Cracked and crumbling, but very coral encrusted, it’s perfect for shutterbugs and writers, just like it was years ago.”
Some of the historic ships he wrote about included the RMS Titanic, the Debraak that sank off Lewes, Delaware, and the Graveyard of the North Atlantic, off North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
For years, Mr. Boyd wrote a monthly shipwreck column, “Wreck Facts,” in Skin Diver magazine, “where I answered questions about divers’ favorite shipwrecks,” he wrote.
The column later moved to Underwater USA, Clive Cussler’s NUMA News, Northeast Dive News and Sport Diver magazine.
In addition to his writing, Mr. Boyd frequently spoke at dive and shipwreck conventions where “Romance & Mystery: Sunken Treasures of the Lost Galleons,” was one of his most sought-after lectures.
He also wrote travel pieces for the old Sunday Sun Magazine and in 1996, wrote a profile of Jean Haviland, a Roland Park resident known as the “Wreck lady.”
Mrs. Haviland and her husband, Kenneth Haviland, a Hopkins professor, had amassed the “largest private maritime library in the world,” Mr. Boyd wrote. “He was the ship authority, while Jean was the shipwreck expert.”
Mr. Boyd also assisted the late Mr. Cussler in researching maritime disasters that he incorporated into his books.
“He loved writing about diving and researching shipwrecks and was very knowledgeable and good at it,” Mr. Reed said. “Ellsworth was an interesting guy who always had time for his friends.”
In addition to his teaching, diving and writing, in 1991, he spearheaded Property Taxpayer United, an organization of some 2,000 who fought rises in property taxes.
“He represented me and my wife before the board and helped get our taxes reduced by several thousand dollars and never asked for a dime,” Mr. Reed said.
“Ellsworth had a very distinctive velvety voice,” Mr. Cussler said. “His enthusiasm was amazing and he had it until the very end. It was curiosity that drove his passion and he was still so sharp and worked hard until the very end of his life.”
A celebration-of-life gathering will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home at 1050 York Road.
Mr. Boyd is survived by his wife of 46 years, Catherine Anne “Cathy” Panzarella, a retired Baltimore County elementary educator; two daughters, Alison M. Whitty, of Silver Spring, and Emily C. McGill, of Nottingham; and five grandchildren.