in trying to encourage passenger train service. When Richard Nixon became United States president in January 1969, Boyd left the Transportation Department to become the president of the Illinois Central Railroad, a position he held from 1969 to 1972. The federal government investigated the potential conflict of interest because that railroad had received aid from Boyd's department before he resigned, but no wrongdoing was found. Boyd was later the president of Amtrak until June 20, 1982, and the president of Airbus Industrie. He became the chairman of Warner Blue & Mahan, a Washington, D.C. based consulting firm working on new technology ventures, in 1994. Later life and death After Boyd retired, he and his wife moved to Seattle. He received the Tony Jannus Award for his contributions to commercial aviation in 1994. He also received the 2009 Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement from Aviation Week & Space Technology. The citation read: "... for his lifelong service to aviation, including shaping policy in the U.S." Boyd published an autobiography, A Great Honor: My Life Shaping 20th Century Transportation in August 2016. Boyd died on October 18, 2020, at a retirement home in Ravenna, Seattle. He was 98, and suffered from failing eyesight in the last five years of life. See also List of railroad executives References External links |- 1922 births 2020 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century American railroad executives Amtrak presidents Florida Democrats Florida lawyers Illinois Central Railroad Lyndon B. Johnson administration cabinet members 20th-century American politicians Military personnel from Florida People from Edmonds, Washington United States Army Air Forces soldiers United States Under Secretaries of Commerce United States Secretaries of Transportation University of Florida alumni University of Virginia School of Law alumni Writers from Jacksonville, Florida American autobiographers