Celebration of Life: Charles F. Boyd (1936-2021)

Charles Fenton Boyd 1936-2021

Charles Boyd

Celebration of Life October 2, 2021

Opening Prayer Mirella Morra ________________________________________________________________________ MEETING ROOM PRAYER GOD be with us in this place and in this hour.

May our meditations in this quiet and familiar room open our minds to knowledge and our hearts to understanding.

And may the knowledge of our minds and the understanding of our hearts find for us a faith without which our course is chartless and our eyes with true vision.

Opening Reading Beth Egan ________________________________________________________________________ THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

–W.B. Yeats

Welcome and Memorial Minute Peter Sturrup ________________________________________________________________________

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Hymn Ellen Wells ________________________________________________________________________ AMAZING GRACE Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I am found Was blind, but now I see

Through many dangers, toils and snares We have already come ‘Twas grace has brought us safe thus far And grace will lead us home

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed

When we’ve been there ten thousand years Bright, shining as the sun We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than when we’ve first begun refrain

A Personal Word Albert Wierenga ________________________________________________________________________

Second Reading Charles Beer ’59 ________________________________________________________________________ ULYSSES Come, my friends, ‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

–Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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Third Reading Ken Tsui ’95 ________________________________________________________________________ PRAYER I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.

–Etienne De Grellet

A Personal Word Desmond Howard ________________________________________________________________________

School Cheer Video Presentation ________________________________________________________________________ A Nick a Nack A Hop a tack A Hulla Genoo Genee Genack A Rip a Rap Rah! Rah! Rah! Pickering P-I-C-K-E-R-I-N-G C-O-L-L-E-G-E

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Fourth Reading Lisa Harun ’97 ________________________________________________________________________ TO THE GRADUATING CLASS “One of the things that has impressed me most about my years at Pickering is that I have never really been away from the place. I suppose that sounds rather far-fetched when one considers I have been gone for four years. Well, of course, I have been gone from everything of Pickering that meets the eye. But to me and to lots of others, those old bricks and the North and South Fields and the Gym aren’t all there is of Pickering. To us she is a living thing—someone we know very well and want to keep on knowing. For Pickering is the sound of voices, the footsteps of many people, the stillness of many hours. She has a long ancestry.

She is all religions and all nations. That is why Pickering is a live thing; for the people are Pickering.

The People are Pickering! What a wonderful thing it would be if all who passed through her doors could understand that; could understand that they are part of something greater than themselves, that they are not just John Jones, but a part of all that they have met. If they could understand that, life when they leave the school would be so much easier to understand. For the people they meet outside Pickering are merely carbon-copies, more battered perhaps, of those they met inside. If they can remember that the majority of people throughout the world are seeking the same things in life, security, happiness and goodwill, they will find it a much happier place in which to live. It is difficult to remember these things. False propaganda, age-old prejudices, hasty decisions and jealousies are hard things to combat. But they have been combatted successfully at Pickering. There you live with people of almost every creed, of many races, of many tongues. Do the students of Pickering ever stop to think why they can do this, while so many in other places cannot? I’ll bet most of them don’t.

If they do think about these things, they will find that while wars and injustice may move them deeply, they need not make them either bitter or unjust. They will look on the world with clear eyes and the surface show will not deceive them. They will see that spiritual values cannot be measured by material weapons nor by material success. The things that are more excellent are many of the things they have come to know at Pickering. If they understand this, they won’t be fooled by the falsities of the life all of them will have to face.“ –from an Old Boy...

Silence and Meditation ________________________________________________________________________

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Fifth Reading Pickering College Community ________________________________________________________________________ THE PROMISE OF THE ATHENIAN YOUTH We will never bring disgrace to this, our City, by any act of dishonesty or coardice, nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks. We will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the City, both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the City’s laws and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence in those above us who are prone to annul or set them at nought; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public’s sense of civic duty.

Thus, in all these ways, we will transmit this City not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.

A Personal Word Robert Boyd ________________________________________________________________________

Sixth Reading

Katherine Starr ‘20 ________________________________________________________________________ ON THE DEATH OF THE BELOVED Though we need to weep your loss, Let us not look for you only in memory, You dwell in that safe place in our hearts Where we would grow lonely without you.

Where no storm on night or pain can reach you. You would want us to find you in presence, Besides us when beauty brightens, Your love was like the dawn When kindness glows Brightening over our lives, And music echoes eternal tones.

Awakening beneath the dark A further adventure of color.

When orchids brighten the earth, Darkest winter has turned to spring; The sound of your voice May this dark grief flower with hope Found for us In every heart that loves you.

A new music That brightened everything.

May you continue to inspire us: To enter each day with a generous heart.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze To serve the call of courage and love Quickened in the joy of its being; Until we see your beautiful face again You placed smiles like flowers In that land where there is no more separation, On the alter of the heart, Where all tears will be wiped from our mind, Your mind always sparkled And where we will never lose you again.

With the wonder at things.

–John O’Donohue Though your days here were brief, Your spirit was alive, awake, complete.

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Closing Message Peter Sturrup ________________________________________________________________________

School Hymn Heather Suters, Harrison Frank ’24, Ellen Wells acc. ________________________________________________________________________ JERUSALEM And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon earthly mountains green?

And was the Holy Lamb of God Amid these pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!

Bring me my arrows of desire!

Bring me my spear! O clouds unfold!

Bring me my Chariot of Fire!

I will not cease from mental fight; Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand ’Til we have built Jerusalem In this our green and pleasant land.

–William Blake

Closing Thought Ron Veitch ’69 ________________________________________________________________________ NIGHT FALLS ON ALL “Night falls on all, yet our high thought, our holy devotions, and our steadfast loves shall live from age to age, from eternity to eternity. They shall not die, though all else sink into decay and oblivion, for they are woven of an immortal texture. That the breath of forgetfulness may never mar .“ –Bayne Cummer, Student: 1927/1929

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