Raymond John Boyd

Raymond John (Ray) Boyd, 95, of Fort Collins, died May 20, 2023, of cancer. He was born June 13, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, returning to his mother’s home in Morrison, Colorado where he grew up. He moved to Denver after first grade and graduated from East High School before joining the U.S. Army Air Corps near the end of WWII. After being honorably discharged from the Army Air Corps in 1946 as a Corporal in the Medical Corps at Westover Field, Massachusetts, he attended Denver University and Colorado A&M (now Colorado State University) graduating with separate Degrees in Biology and Game Management as well as a Master of Science Degree in Range Management. After graduation he and his wife, Carol Lou, moved to the Little Hills Game Experiment Station of the Colorado Game and Fish Department (now the Colorado Parks and Wildlife) near Meeker, Colorado. They moved to Montrose, Colorado in 1957, where he conducted research in deer spring grazing on alfalfa crops, and began researching elk population dynamics on the White River Plateau and the Rio Grande National Forest. In 1966 he was transferred to Fort Collins where he continued his research on elk population dynamics. He published more than twenty technical papers on his research, a technical bulletin and chapters on elk in the Wildlife Management Institute book, Big Game of North America – Ecology and Management and was a chapter author and the technical editor for the BLM publication Inventory and Monitoring of Wildlife Habitat. Additionally, he was the compiler and author of a Department of Interior National Strategic Plan – Mountain Sheep Ecosystem Management Strategies in the Eleven Western States and Alaska and author of Elk of the White River Plateau, Colorado: A Study by the Game Research Section, Colorado Division of Game, Fish, and Parks Big Game Investigations, Project W-38-R, Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration.

He left the Division of Wildlife in 1975, spending the next twenty-three years working for the Bureau of Land Management as a Senior Wildlife Management Biologist. He retired in 1997.

He loved the outdoors and spent many hours and days fishing and hunting (harvesting his last deer at the age of 93). All of his children and grandchildren hunted and fished with him, and his great joy was to see them enjoying the outdoors as he did. His passion was elk hunting, and each fall he spent many hours checking menus, arranging horses, gathering camp gear, and being the elk camp Guru for his family and friends for more than thirty-five years in their usual elk camp in the White River National Forest. As the group’s designated “Elk Guru” he passed on his vast knowledge of the wildlife found along the Rocky Mountains. He will be missed by many.

His marriage to Caroline Louise (Carol Lou) Jones in 1951 resulted in four children: Scott Williamson Boyd (deceased) of Loveland, CO, Alberta Lynn (Allynn) Riggs of Centennial, CO, RaeMarie Pericharos of Loveland, CO, and Malcolm Richard (Woody) Boyd of LaPorte, CO. Ray met his future wife at a square dance while in college (1947-1953) and together they were members of the Aggie Haylofters’ square dance exhibition team at Colorado A&M (now CSU), that won a National Square Dance Championship in the early 1950s. Ray called and taught square dancing for forty-six years, retiring from calling in 1993. He and Carol Lou were inducted into the Northeast Colorado Square Dance Hall of Fame in 1996.

While his children grew up, he supported their athletic ventures and became a measurer for field events in Track & Field. He was also an accredited Boone and Crocket Club measurer, receiving awards for his multiple decades of expertise in those areas.

Some of his advice included: “You can get older but don’t get old.” “If you can help it, don’t get old.” If asked if he was staying out of trouble he would often answer, “Who me? Where’s the fun in that?” “If you can’t stay out of trouble, have fun.” And, “Square dancing will keep you young and happy.”

After Carol Lou passed away in 2006, Ray followed up on several bucket list items that they had desired by traveling to Africa on a photography safari in Tanzania, visiting the Galapagos Islands, and taking an upper Amazon River trip out of Peru – nine months after having both knees replaced at the age of 84. He could also be found fishing with one or the other of his sons wherever possible and even took a trip to Christmas Island for a week-long fishing trip with Woody.

Ray is predeceased by his parents Raymond Saller and Alberta Pike; his step-father Robert Boyd, his step-father’s second wife, Inadel “Cookie” Boyd; his loving wife, Carol Lou; and his son, Scott W. Boyd (Laura Downing). Ray is survived by a brother, Ronald Boyd, three of his children, Allynn Riggs (Bob Riggs); Rae Marie Pericharos (George Pericharos, deceased), Woody Boyd (Tracy Klockner); and five grandchildren (Carolyn M. Riggs, Kendrick F. Boyd, Kristina A.R. Book, Devin V. Riggs, and Lewis M. Boyd).

Memorial contributions can be made in his name to the National Elk Foundation or to the National Cancer Research Foundation or American Cancer Society. Please visit www.allnutt.com to view the online obituary, sign the family guestbook and send condolences.