Robert Kinnear "Bob" Boyd

1938 - 2024

Robert (Bob) Kinnear Boyd was a brilliant man, who had the rare ability to divine the unseen forces in the universe, known by the deceptively simple term, "physical chemistry." Through his career, he led the chase to measure these forces, revolutionizing the branch which became known as Mass Spectrometry. Robert died on August 18, 2024. Born in Peebles, Scotland, on July 19, 1938, his determination to explore the universe through inner thought was forged by summers spent digging peat on Foula, known as the world's most remote inhabited island, located at 61 degrees North in the Shetland archipelago. With his four siblings, Isobel (predeceased), Elizabeth, Hazel and Colin, he attended high school at Peebles High School in the Borders of Scotland. There, he distinguished himself, winning the Taylour-Thomson Bursary to attend St. Andrews University. He went on to win the Junior Honours Class Medal in Chemistry, Forrester prize and Sir James Irvine Medal for Chemistry. He then won the prestigious Carnegie Research Fellowship to continue his studies with a PhD in the new field of physical chemistry. As he would later say, his best years were coming. They began when he met his wife of 59 years Dianna (née Hummel), during his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Research Council in Ottawa. Working in the same building, their courtship was conducted under stealthy conditions, with Bob eventually winning the heart and hand of his beautiful artist. In his last days Bob was certain that if he could relive one day forever it would be his first date with Dianna. His other great talent, music, helped him with his suit as he dedicated and sung her original compositions. A man of principle, Bob felt very strongly that he was obliged to repay his country for his education, so he took his new bride to Leatherhead in the United Kingdom, to work for the Central Electricity Research Laboratories. This turned out to be a fairly short stint, with the newlyweds moving back to Canada within two years, with Bob realizing that a homesick wife would not make for a happy life. Bob's first stop on his academic journey was as part of the wave of immigrants who populated the Chemistry department at the University of Guelph. Here, he made his lifelong friends and colleagues Drs. Colin Fyfe and Alan Mellors. For the next 18 years, he made his home in Guelph, welcoming son, John, to the family in 1973. During this time, he was in high demand at conferences and meetings, eventually being a main organizer for a number of International Physical Chemistry conferences around the world. Taking two sabbatical years in Swansea, Wales (1975 and 1984), Bob was able to work with his mentor, John Beynon, an opportunity he treasured, and when looking back in recent years, he felt, enabled his best work. Wanting new challenges, in 1986, he moved with the family to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he led the Chemistry group at the Institute for Marine Biosciences. One year later, the East Coast of Canada suffered a wave of illness related to eating shellfish. With 156 people sickened and three dead, both the lives and livelihood on the shores of Nova Scotia were threatened. Bob and his group worked night and day, and eventually discovered the cause: a new toxin (Domoic acid) had entered the food chain via blooming algae. They went on to produce a test which could be applied to safely allow resumption of the harvest. It was during this period that sleepless nights formed another lifelong friendship with Dr. Roger Foxhall, who was then Director General of the Institute. He went on to succeed Roger as Director General of the Institute for Marine Biosciences, became head of Genome Atlantic and was Editor in Chief for Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry until his retirement in 2002. Retirement allowed him and his colleagues, Cecilia Basic and Robert A. Bethem, to finally write the definitive textbook in their field, Trace Quantitative Analysis by Mass Spectrometry. Robert was a devoted father and grandfather to his two grandchildren, Ruby and Kieran. With the appearance of Kieran in 2011, he and Dianna moved to Vancouver to spend time with the growing family. Here he threw himself into their new life, being active on his Strata Council, leading the discussion group at Brock House, and indulging a love of walking, writing and travel to new locations with Dianna. Bob died of complications related to vascular dementia. He leaves behind his wife, Dianna; son, John (Niki); and grandchildren, Kieran and Ruby. A celebration of life will be held at the Jericho Tennis Club on Sept 18, 2024, from 2-4 p.m.