Jim Boyd, Longtime WCVB Anchor and Reporter, Dies at 84

Jim Boyd, who spent 36 years as an anchor and reporter at WCVB-TV in Boston, has died. He was 84.

WCVB announced his death on Tuesday. The station did not give a cause.

Boyd started in television in 1961, in the mailroom at WNET-TV in New York. He moved into public affairs and production work there, spent a year on the staff of WGBH-TV’s Say Brother, then went back to WNET as a producer of News in Perspective, an Emmy Award-winning news analysis program.

He joined WCVB when the station went on the air in 1972, starting as a general assignment reporter. He went on to anchor the weekend and EyeOpener newscasts and co-anchored the Midday newscast with Susan Wornick, and he finished his time at the station as a special correspondent. He retired in 2008.

The honors followed. He received the Golden Circle award from the New England chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2011. He was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2012.

Retirement did not slow him down. In 2013 he finished the college degree he had started decades earlier, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Tufts University. “I struggle with trying to find the adequate words to explain just how great it felt to be able to get that degree and walk across that stage,” he told WCVB’s Chronicle. He also took acting work, appearing in movies and television productions filmed in Massachusetts, including American Hustle, Black Mass and Spotlight.

Boyd served on the boards of AFTRA, Youth Enrichment Services, the Roxbury YMCA and the Massachusetts chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, and he coached youth softball, track, basketball and soccer in Needham.

In 2022, Boyd and Wornick made a surprise appearance together during WCVB’s 50 Years Fund telethon.

He is survived by Linda, his wife of 42 years, and three daughters.