Orlyn Miles Boyd

Orlyn M. Boyd was a traveling man. A 22-year veteran of the Air Force who got to travel the world. He was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota on June 23, 1931. Not a studious guy, he liked to hang out with his buddies, smoke cigarettes and throw rocks at the local greenhouse windows. In 1949 he joined the Army Air Corp. and served four years. He returned to Albert Lea and eventually found the love of his life, Priscilla (Perky) Anderson. They married on June 12, 1955. That October he returned to the Air Force. He was very mechanical and ended up serving as a flight engineer. Orlyn and Perky were first stationed at Barksdale A.F.B. in Shreveport, Louisiana, where they began their family, having a son and a daughter, Miles and Mary. After that time, Orlyn spent a year in the Air Sea Rescue Squadron where he went to Greenland. After his Greenland tour, the family was stationed in Bermuda for two years and then transferring to Wright-Patterson A.F.B. in Fairborn, Ohio. A second daughter, Donna, was born. After four years there, the family of 5 was off to Sweden. Orlyn was assigned to the Air Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Sweden for four years. He would travel quite a bit, making frequent trips to Weisbaden A.F.B. in Germany. While in Sweden Orlyn took the family to do all the sightseeing they could—Stockholm, Copenhagen, Dalana, Oslo, and many locations in Germany. They would host cocktail parties and attend dignitary events. He was a strict father but an even more loving and fun man. He was a jokester and partier. And the best handyman a wife could want, able to complete any decorating or house project Perky requested. His next tour was a year in Vietnam. The family went back to Wright-Patterson AFB to wait for him. He flew C-47s. He always said it was his easiest tour. He and his bride managed a week in Hawaii during that year, another travel first. In 1970, the family moved to Fayettevile, North Carolina, where Orlyn was stationed at Pope A.F.B. and flew C-130s. In 1971, another daughter entered the family, Sarah. After that brief stint, everyone went to Ramey A.F.B. in Puerto Rico. Orlyn was a Hurricane Hunter. He took up flying and earned his pilot’s license. He retired from the Air Force in 1973. The family went back to Fairborn, Ohio where they had friends. Orlyn embarked on a new career. It took him a while to find it but he was eventually hired by Monarch Machine Tool Company, working with his hands, fixing big machinery. And travelling. Monarch transferred him to Dallas, Texas where he spent his last years working, finally retiring in 1996. He became more serious about golf, playing regularly at Hideaway Lake where he had moved. He could boast about two holes-in-one at that course! That didn’t mean his travel days were over though. He and Perky would take cruises-- Singapore to Hong Kong, the Caribbean, and the Panama Canal. They took a trip to Alaska, back to Germany, to Russia and Czechoslovakia with good friends. They’d travel to see their children and grandchildren across the U.S., spending vacations in Palm Springs, California; Yosemite; Destin, Florida and the Dominican Republic, always looking for an adventure. Even after Perky suffered congestive heart failure and eventually lymphoma, they would travel to visit family. Orlyn loved to map out a road trip! When Perky passed in 2012, Orlyn moved to the Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH) in Mississippi. His traveling days were winding down, but he still managed road trips back to Albert Lea a couple of times for high school reunions. He commented that he wished he could have made it to Australia. He would take day trips sponsored by the AFRH, play bingo, attend dances, and sing karaoke. In fact, Orlyn went to the AFRH bar for karaoke the night he died. He returned to his room and died peacefully in his chair on Saturday, August 25, 2018. Orlyn M. Boyd is survived by two sisters, Becky Johnson of Owatanna, Minnesota and Avis Hurst of Albert Lea, Minnesota; his son, Miles Boyd (Darlene) of Cecilia, Kentucky; and daughters Mary Ann Cooper (Ronald) of Sheridan, Indiana; Donna Hoffmann of Redlands, California; and Sarah Lauber (Charles) of Elm Grove, Wisconsin; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. If you knew Orlyn or if you read this obituary and feel what an adventurous, smart, loving man he was, pay tribute by planning a trip with a loved one. Travel.