William Boyd Kruger

Boyd was very gifted, and lived an interesting life with many projects to accomplish and stories to tell. He constructed dormers, decks, his house on Pender, rebuilt engines, a metal bodied roadster, a pop-up camper, a wooden bodied electric car with working headlights for his two year old son, (later converted to bodiless go-kart), a playhouse, tree fort, a pergola, a large pool deck with hanging lamps around the perimeter. He welded, lathed, made trinket boxes out of old piano keys, toy grand pianos with hinged tops, and so much more. He used wood from the trees on his Pender property for his kitchen cabinets and walls. Near his grand piano, he installed a real pipe organ from a church into his high-ceilinged living room. Additionally, he built a multilevelled music room for a Rodgers organ, with copious speakers, amps, and midi equipment. His engineering mind loved to play with sound, both acoustically and electrically, changing the shapes of his walls and ceilings, rewiring and patching together various equipment to get different effects.

Boyd’s piano playing was extraordinary. On late summer nights in the early years of raising a family, neighbours sat out on their porches to listen as he improvised Rachmaninoff. Growing up, he studied piano in Saskatoon with Lyell Gustin. When it became apparent he had the talent to become a concert pianist, Lyell asked ‘Will it be music, or motorcycles?’. Boyd chose ‘motorcycles’ as he had too many other ideas to pursue and couldn’t possibly have devoted himself to only one passion.

Boyd was the eldest of three. His sisters Florence and Joyce have fond recollections of their early years together. The children were raised in the United Church, and spent most of their childhoods on the prairies. (Winnipeg, Brandon, Saskatoon). Briefly, they lived in Haney and Victoria. Boyd’s parents were principled and family-centred, hosting countless Sunday dinners for their children and grandchildren in Vancouver where they resided from 1956 onwards. Boyd often referred to the prairies as ‘home’, and took his family on several camping trips across the prairies to Oak Bank, Manitoba to visit the cousins and extended family he was so very fond of. Those visits to Oak Bank were very happy times for everyone.

Boyd studied engineering at the University of Saskatchewan and then UBC, and worked for the Greater Vancouver Regional District as an Applied Science technologist for over 25 years, designing innovative equipment including the 300 foot elevator at Cleveland dam, a life saving locking device for chlorine transport, an anti-vortex device for reservoirs, etc. Once retired, he relocated to Pender Island, where his creativity never waned. In his later years, he converted a Pontiac Laurentian into an unusually large ‘roadster’ by sawing off everything from the windshield back, and building a wooden body and flat deck in place of what he’d removed. He painted the outside red and blue, and applied lacquer to the wood panelled flat deck. It was a vehicle like him: Full of character, unforgettable, with a story waiting to be told.

Boyd is survived by his children Allan, Beth (Dave), and Joy, grandchildren Angela, Candace, Taryn, Bayden, Sebastian, Ashlyn, sisters Florence and Joyce, nephew David, niece Janice, and other beloved family and friends. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a charity of one's choice. A celebration of Boyd’s life will be held at Knox United Church in Vancouver, at a later date.