Robert H. Boyle

Robert Hamilton Boyle Jr. (August 21, 1928—May 19, 2017) was an environmental activist, conservationist, book author and former senior writer for Sports Illustrated. In 1966, Boyle was instrumental in the founding of the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association which grew to become Riverkeeper, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries. Boyle's focus was to cleanup the highly polluted Hudson River with its toxic waste and fish kills that garnered national attention and became the butt of jokes by the late Johnny Carson, former host of The Tonight Show.[1]

Robert H. Boyle
Robert H. Boyle in the 1994 PBS special, Sturgeon: Ancient Survivors of the Deep
BornAugust 21, 1928
DiedMay 19, 2017(2017-05-19) (aged 88)
OccupationSports writer
Known forAuthor, conservationist

As a writer for Sports Illustrated, Boyle broke the mold of typical sportswriter covering football, boxing, golf and other sports. He extended his range of topics and wrote about various outdoor activities, birds, and other topics that he was passionate about from when he was a small boy, such as fishing and the river. Boyle was among the first to report on the existence of PCB contamination in fishes of the Hudson River in a 1970 article he wrote for Sports Illustrated, titled "Poison Roams Our Coastal Seas".[2][3] His efforts helped instigate a billion-dollar cleanup effort.[4] He also exposed sizeable fish kills in the Hudson that was caused by the Indian Point nuclear power plant discharging their cooling water into the river.[5][lower-alpha 1] He uncovered a forgotten law, the Federal Refuse Act of 1899, which led to the first litigation in federal court that resulted in judgments and substantial fines against water polluters.[7]

Early life, education, and military service

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Boyle developed a love for fishing while attending a boarding school in Highland Falls.[8] He received his B.A. in history from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1949, followed by an M.A. in history and international affairs from Yale University.[8][7] He served in the United States Marine Corps in the United States Atlantic Fleet during the Korean War, achieving the rank of second lieutenant.[8][7] He then briefly attended Trinity College in Dublin and the Universitat de Barcelona in Spain, where he also enjoyed a stint as a professional baseball player.[7][8]

Career

In 1953, after receiving his education abroad, Boyle returned to the US and began his career as a writer for the United Press.[7] In September 1954, he secured a position with Time Inc., and wrote articles for Time Magazine, Life and Sports Illustrated, the latter of which was the company's newest magazine with only four published issues at the time.[9] Boyle's articles ranged from nature topics and environmental concerns to sports. Some of his most notable coverage included Nikita Khrushchev's visit to the US in 1959, his 1965 Sports Illustrated cover story when the New York Jets drafted Joe Namath, and in 1966 when Muhammad Ali was resisting military draft.[7] In 1981, he received the Communicator of the Year award from the National Wildlife Federation.[9]

Sports and environmental writing
Indian Point nuclear power plant on the Hudson River

Boyle was an avid fly fisherman, and instrumental in the founding of Riverkeeper, a nonprofit, environmental organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the Hudson River, its watersheds and tributaries.[10] Boyle's research and published articles in Sports Illustrated[11] were crucial to the litigation brought in 1965 by Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference (Scenic Hudson) against Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), New York's primary electric utility company in the lawsuit titled Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission. Hudson River Valley citizens and environmentalists were concerned that Con Ed's proposed power plant on Storm King Mountain in the Hudson Highlands would cause ecological harm, destroy critical habitat for aquatic species, and that the plant's water-intake equipment would kill small fish.[9]

In 1969, Boyle published The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History, describing the effects of pollution on the waterway, and described as "[a] book of great charm with many nuggets of little known lore".[12] In 1970, Boyle "was among the first journalists to report that North American Fish were contaminated with toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs".[8] In 1983, Boyle simultaneously published two books: Acid Rain, which highlighted the threat to wildlife and ultimately human health attributed to acid rain "caused by the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the combustion of fossil fuels"; and At the Top of Their Game, a collection of essays about people driven to achieve great things, including profiles of tennis official Jimmy Van Alen, novelist Zane Grey, dog trainer Robert Abady, handballer Jimmy Jacobs, and fly fisherman Charles E. Brooks.[13] Boyle ended his affiliation with Riverkeeper in 2000, following a dispute with the organization's attorney, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over Kennedy's hiring of a scientist with a criminal record.[8][14]

Boyle's last book, published in 2006, was Dapping, the Exciting Way of Fishing Flies that Fly Quiver and Jump.[15]

Personal life and death

Boyle married Jane Crosby Sanger, with whom he had a daughter and two sons. Jane died in 1975, and Boyle later married Kathryn Belous, who survived him. Boyle died of cancer at the age of 88 in Cooperstown, New York.[8]

Notes
  1. Nuclear plant discharge water creates thermal water pollution by changing the ambient water temperature. The temperature of the discharge water typically ranges around 30–40 °C (86–104 °F) when it is released back into a river, lake, or other body of water.[6]

References
  1. "New York's Waters Cleaner, But Pollution Is Still Daunting". The New York Times. 1990-04-19. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  2. Ayer, F.A.; Buckley, J.L.; United States. Department of Agriculture; Council on Environmental Quality (U.S.); Council on Environmental Quality (U.S.). (1976). National Conference on Polychlorinated Biphenyls, November 1975, Chicago, Illinois: Conference Proceedings. EPA (Series). Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Toxic Substances. p. 368. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  3. "Bob Boyle's quest to clean the Hudson leaves a lasting legacy: Appreciation". shreveporttimes.com. 2017-05-23. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  4. Dykstra, Peter (2019-05-19). "Peter Dykstra: Saviors of the Hudson". EHN. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  5. Anadromous Fish - 1965: Hearing, 89-1, May 10-11, 1965. 1965. p. 75. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  6. "Thermal Water Pollution from Nuclear Power Plants". Professor Robert B. Laughlin, Department of Physics, Stanford University. 2019-02-28. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  7. "Robert H. Boyle, Age 88; Writer, Environmentalist". AllOTSEGO.com. 2017-05-19. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  8. Sam Roberts, "Robert Boyle, 88, writer, watchdog of rivers, wildlife" The Boston Globe (May 25, 2017), B9.
  9. Balk, Tim (2017-05-23). "Former Sports Illustrated writer Robert H. Boyle dies at 88". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  10. "Robert H. Boyle, a Watchdog of the Hudson River, Dies at 88". The New York Times. 2017-05-23. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  11. Cronin and Kennedy, p.24.
  12. Ethel Jacobson, "The Natural World in Words and Photos", St. Louis Post-Dispatch (December 7, 1969), p. 4MA.
  13. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Sportswriter handles grim, light subjects with ease", Arizona Republic (July 31, 1983), p. F-10.
  14. "A Kennedy and His Mentor Part Ways Over River Group". The New York Times. 2000-11-05. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  15. "Robert H. Boyle, Age 88; Writer, Environmentalist". AAD Reports. June 3, 2017.

Bibliography
  • Cronin, John Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. (1999). The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-84625-5
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