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Editor's Introduction: Ron Boyce's death brought sadness to our legal community. The Utah Bar Journal thanks Judge David Winder, Judge Dee Benson, Professor John Flynn and Dean Scott
Matheson for allowing us to share excerpts from remarks they made at public and private memorial services. (The Journal has made minor transitional edits to convert the speakers' notes
into this format, and chosen stories and commentary about Ron Boyce in preference to the speakers' personal feelings expressed in the privacy of the services.)
Judge Dee Benson
Ron Boyce was as good a friend as I'll ever have, and one of the most impressive people I've ever known. Now I know that sounds a lot like superlatives, but I don't know how else
to say it. Ron Boyce was a very impressive man to me in virtually every way. He was smart, yet remarkably humble. He was extremely funny, but never seemed to be going out of his way for
laughs alone. He was knowledgeable almost to a fault, yet he also had this endearing lack of awareness of certain aspects of popular culture. He was one of the most enigmatic people I've
ever known. I know I'll never meet anyone else quite like him.
If I was ever a contestant on the television program "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," there is no doubt
who I would pick as the friend to call for help. Ron Boyce. He could tell you the death toll of an obscure 19th century battle in southern Africa and still have no clue who N'Sync is. And
when one of my clerks would tell him N'Sync is the No. 1 boy band in America, he would say, "Who needs such useless information?" - to which I would be tempted to ask,
"Well, who needs to know the death count of a 200 year old African war?"
It has become more and more apparent to me how much we all miss him, and how much of a presence
he was in our lives. Part of that realization has come from a large number of spontaneous conversations with a large variety of people about Ron Boyce. It is quite a phenomenon, really.
The conversation begins innocently enough, then automatically shifts into what I will call "Boyce-Drive" - going from one anecdote about Ron Boyce to another until an hour or so
later everyone has laughed hard, smiled a lot, shared a lot, and feels better. The stories he has left us with are remarkable both for their sheer number and their variety. Many have said
Ron Boyce had an incredible knowledge of the law, and he did, but we all know it didn't stop there. Law was just the catalyst, maybe the glue, for the large volume of stuff Ron was
interested in: from science, to literature, to politics, to history, to anything that had to do with prisons, sheep, orangutans, mustangs (the automatic variety), the Russian mafia,
street gangs, and the human genome project. Some of the most interesting conversations of my life have been with Ron Boyce.
Judge Dale Kimball told us one of his favorite Ron
Boyce moments. Ron saw Dale in the hallway of the courthouse one day. Ron said he had a good idea that he wanted Dale to pass on to the general authorities of the Mormon Church. Ron said
the church officials wouldn't listen much to Ron, but they'd probably listen to Dale. Dale said he'd be glad to pass along anything Ron wanted. Ron explained that for many years he had a
habit of coming to work on Sunday mornings and he would always listen to the Tabernacle Choir on the radio. He said how much he enjoyed it. Dale then asked, "So what's your big
idea?" Ron said, "Well, I just think the church is missing out on a good bet with that broadcast - they really ought to think about putting it on television." Dale said he
just looked at Ron, one of the smartest men he'd ever known, and couldn't believe he had missed the fact that the Tabernacle Choir had been on television for the past 40 years.
That story caused one of my law clerks, Scott Bates, to remind us of the time he asked Ron a question that I think a number of us had always wondered about. He asked Ron if he was ever a
member of any church. Ron said, "I guess in my early life I would have been considered a member of the LDS Church." "What led to the demise of that affiliation?" Scott
asked. "I guess the onset of puberty had a lot to do with it," said Ron in one of our favorite quotes.
And someone else recalled Ron's classic rant from the bench about
people who represent themselves in court. "There should be a special place reserved in purgatory for pro se plaintiffs," he often said. And that brought to Paul Warner's mind
the only time he saw Judge Boyce visibly upset on the bench. A pro se defendant in a criminal fraud case told Judge Boyce that the reason he had missed a court deadline for filing papers
was because the judge, meaning Ron, had been off on a vacation and therefore wouldn't have been around to read the papers anyway. He may as well have accused Ron of being a child
molester. "I'll have you know I haven't taken a vacation since 1968," said Ron. It's hard to imagine anything more offensive to our Judge Boyce than an allegation that he had
actually taken a vacation.
Dean Scott Matheson.
In the last few days I've imagined what Ron might advise if I asked him for some guidance on what to say today. I can picture him leaning back in his chair and telling me that I could find what I'm looking for in volume 237 of the Pacific Reporter at page 145 in the second column at the top of the page. No one loved the law more than Ron Boyce loved the law. And no one loved teaching more than Ron Boyce loved to teach. What a perfect combination for a law school. The faculty and students at our law school have been blessed. Professor Ron Boyce Ñ he loved being a law professor. And no one could profess like Professor Boyce. Henry Adams wrote that "a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Ron Boyce's influence runs wide and deep, and it will never stop.
As I responded this week to questions about Ron from news reporters, I would have to interrupt myself to explain that I really wasn't exaggerating what I was telling them about
Ron. If he seemed larger than life, it's because he was, starting with his seemingly endless supply of knowledge. Ron Boyce was the Paul Bunyan of Utah law. He towered over the legal
landscape. The Utah Supreme Court makes the final decisions, but Ron Boyce often was the final authority on what they meant. One time I heard a Utah Supreme Court Justice joke that he
needed to talk with Ron to find out what the Justice had just decided. At the law school we have a faculty library with case reporters and law reviews. But the real faculty library was
just a few doors away in the person of Ron Boyce.
A number of years ago, Ron asked me if I found it difficult to keep up with the state supreme court decisions. I assumed he meant
the Utah Supreme Court, and I admitted that I didn't always read all of the decisions when they were issued. It turned out that Ron was referring to the supreme court decisions from every
state! Then he told me his system for reading all of them from the regional reporter system on a fourteen day cycle.
A little over ten years ago, then Dean Lee Teitelbaum and I
were standing in the law school lobby and we noticed Ron, clearly quite pleased about something, walking toward us with a stack of books that he had purchased at the law library's excess
book sale. We asked him what he had bought. He proudly announced that he had secured a copy of the Norwegian Penal Code. He then proceeded to tell us about the interesting way Norway
approaches criminal conspiracy law. As he walked away, Lee turned to me and said that he wished we had that conversation on tape. In a way we do; we'll never forget it.
A few years
ago, I received in the mail a complimentary copy of a 700 page volume on the history of the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps. The only person I could imagine actually reading it was
Ron Boyce. I gave it to him, and the next day his mother died. At the funeral, Ron thanked me for the book and apologized that he had not yet had a chance to read it.
We all know
that Ron Boyce performed essentially two full time jobs at the same time at exceptionally high levels. I had the unique opportunity to see him do this firsthand. I worked with Professor
Boyce as a faculty colleague, and I worked with Judge Boyce when I served as United States Attorney. In December 1995, just a few days before Christmas, there was a bomb scare at the
federal courthouse, and everyone had to evacuate. As I checked to make sure everyone was gone from the fourth floor, I ran into Judge Boyce. He reminded me that he was holding court at
1:00 p.m. I reminded him there was a bomb scare evacuation. He said he knew about the evacuation, but that he would be in the parking lot to hear cases on his calendar, and that the
Assistant US Attorneys with cases had better be there. It was lunchtime, and I ran up and down Main Street trying to find our lawyers. Judge Boyce held court that freezing day in the
parking lot, with lawyers and prisoners in orange jump suits shivering in the cold.
As much as he taught in classrooms, in courtrooms, and in auditoriums, he taught us even more
through his example. And that, I suggest, may be his greatest legacy. You see, Ron Boyce loved Darlene and his family, he loved the court and the court family, he loved the law school and
the law school family, and he loved his country. He loved these people and these institutions, and he was absolutely dedicated and loyal to them all. He worked harder than anyone I've
ever known. He was totally without pretense. He was an exceptionally honest and decent man. He was fair. And he was humble. His loss, as incalculable as it is, is exceeded by the
wonderful legacy and example he leaves. Goodbye Judge, goodbye Professor, goodbye Ron. You were our teacher, and you were our friend. And you meant the world to all of us.
Professor John Flynn.
We all know that Ron Boyce set high standards for himself as a lawyer, teacher and judge, and that he lived up to them in ways that will never be matched. Some of us also know how devoted to his country he was and the quiet pride he had in his service in the United States Air Force and Air Force Reserve despite the annual struggle he endured for several years to pass the physical required of a full colonel - a physical none of us could pass. Some of us even know that in 1943 at age ten and unbeknown to his parents, Ron tried to sign up in the military to help defend his country in World War II. I know Ron would not mind our holding a memorial on Veteran's Day, a day he held sacred because it is a day to commemorate the devotion of those who served their country in the military. If we were compelled to hold a memorial in his memory, he would want it on this day so long as we remember all those who served and presently serve in the military forces of our Country.
Barbara McFarlane, Marva Hicken and Kathleen Steck, his assistants at the College of Law and at the Court have long known what a wonderful and considerate man he was to work for
despite his repeated attempts Ñ sometimes subtle and other times not Ñ to take over their offices to store some of his books. Barbara worked with Ron at the College of Law for 35 years.
She always called Ron her "boss" even though he did not consider himself her "boss," certainly did not act like a "boss" and considered her a good and close
friend. Every day he could be found in Barbara's office dictating an exam question, a speech, or a letter after his morning class or doing so by phone later in the day. He never mastered
such modern devices as a dictaphone or a computer, so Barbara kept up her shorthand skills by taking dictation every day from the man she fondly called "The Mad Dictator." He
did not mind being known as such or for not adopting the more modern trappings of electronic equipment because he knew Barbara was more accurate and understood how to punctuate his
thoughts as he went along.
Barbara, Marva and Kathleen all mentioned that Ron was never unpleasant or demanding; that he always thanked them when they completed a project; that he
left them alone and never looked over their shoulder; and, that if mistakes happened, he always found humor in the mistake. Ron treated everyone the same way and he would want the loyal
help of these three remarkable friends remembered instead of praise for himself.
The College of Law has had Ron Boyce prowling its halls and library since 1954 when he first
enrolled as a law student and sat in the classes of some remarkable law teachers like Wally Bennett, Edgar Bodenheimer; Ron Degnan, Dan Dykstra, Fred Emery, Sandy Kadish, Spence Kimball,
Bob Swenson and Bob Schmidt. They were all managed by an equally remarkable staff person, Rita Fordham. Ron joined the faculty in 1966 when Sam Thurman was the Dean. Our growing faculty
included new additions like Dick Aaron, Jerry Andersen, Ed Firmage, Jeff Fordham, Lionel Frankel, Denny Ingram, Bill Lockhart, John Morris, Les Mazor, Wayne Thode, Arvo Van Alystyne and
Dick Young in those years. We were his other family, and Ron would want us remembered as such.
He would not only debate just about any topic one could come up with, he was often
better informed about it than most. Frequently, one was not quite sure where Ron stood on a particular topic as he probed in true Socratic style to help another understand their own
assumptions without imposing his views on his students or friends. This was particularly true of politics and I must confess after 36 years that I could never quite decide whether Ron was
a right wing Republican, a moderate one, a Utah Democrat or an unrepentant Libertarian. I always suspected he was none of the above but could never be certain and knew it was useless to
ask. It would only provoke another question about why I assumed he was one or the other just because he had made a funny comment about some current event.
Ron was famous, of
course, for reading every case that was printed in the Reporter System - state and federal - and was able to cite them, what they stood for and even the page where the point of the case
was made, at the drop of a hat. Bob Campbell, a fellow young lawyer with Ron in the early days of his career at the Attorney General's Office, told me about the time when Ron was making a
particularly strange argument in a case before the Utah Supreme Court. Justice Callister leaned over and asked: " Counsel, do you have any support at all for the unusual proposition
you are arguing?" Ron replied: "Yes, your honor it is from a case decided by the Supreme Court of South Africa at page so and so of the South African Reports. You might note it
is from Spring Assizes of this year." And, the case did hold what Ron was arguing and it was indeed decided at the Spring Assizes of the South African court for that year.
One
day when I almost tripped over the pile of reporters regularly stacked outside his office door, Ron opened the door to add another to the pile. I said: "Ron, you must be the only
person in all creation that reads the Australian, Canadian, English and all the U.S. reports." He held up the book he was about to add to the pile and said with a smile: "You
missed New Zealand and I am almost finished with South Africa if you want to skim over some of the interesting cases in there."
Judge David Winder. I am honored to be
able to speak to you concerning my friend of 43 years, Ronald Nelson Boyce. Ron Boyce was educated in Salt Lake City public schools, and graduated from East High School. As you might
expect, he excelled academically. In some other respects, he didn't excel. He was rather short of stature and, in fact, some of the students referred to him as "Scrawny Ronnie."
Understandably, this upset him, and he set out early to correct that impression. He took up weightlifting, bodybuilding, and wrestling. He continued some training in these areas while at
law school. To help finance his schooling, he went to work for Bob Rice, who ran a chain of bodybuilding salons. By 1956, his training there enabled Ron to bench press 181 pounds, with a
physique which would have made Charles Atlas proud.
He also was a top wrestler on the University of Utah wrestling team. But Ron never told me about his wrestling successes until
some 25 years ago when I read a John Mooney column in the Tribune sports section. Mooney had an interview with Carl Schleckman, then the wrestling coach at the University of Utah, who
gave his opinion of the best wrestlers in Utah history. There, among four or five names was Ronald N. Boyce. I had a validation of Ron's wrestling skills one day 30 or 35 years ago at a
barbecue in my back yard. Ron Boyce was a guest, as was Richard L. Dewsnup, who was then Ron's and my partner at Clyde, Mecham and Pratt. After a few beers, Dewsnup, a big strong farm boy
from Delta, Utah, got playfully pushing Ron around. Suddenly, Ron went into action and within about five seconds or less had Dewsnup pinned to the grass. I never had any doubt, after
that, as to Ron's wrestling prowess.
After graduating from the University of Utah in 1955 Ron went into an accelerated program at the University Law School and graduated there in
1957 at or near the top of his class. In law school, Ron was Note Editor of the Law Review, and graduated Order of the Coif. He then became an officer in the Judge Advocate department of
the Air Force where he handled numerous court marshals. He ultimately retired from the Air Force Reserve as a full colonel. About this time, Ron met Darlene at the Rice Fitness Salon. She
was the love of his life. At the time of their meeting, Darlene was an instructor at one of Rice's salons. Prior to this meeting, Ron had been a judge in a beauty pageant in which Darlene
was crowned "Ms. Wasatch." After only six dates, Ron and Darlene were married.
Ron Boyce drove a 1967 Mustang, which he bought new that year and always drove thereafter.
I understand it is parked in front of the building. His desire for continuity was extended to his wardrobe. The last suit I saw him wearing before he went into the hospital had probably
been bought in 1967, the same year as his revered Mustang. Ron was never a great fan of the banking system. I don't think he had a checking account until perhaps ten years ago, when he
was almost forced to open an account so that he could pay his utility bills. Before this, I used to see him troop up to Mountain Fuel Supply and Utah Power & Light to the one cashier
who would accept cash. No kidding, Ron would carry four or five thousand dollars in a very fat wallet, mainly in $100 dollar bills. I don't think he's ever had a credit card.
I am
sure that most of you are generally familiar with Ron's background and legal accomplishments. These are admirably set forth in his obituary. I will not repeat them, but I do want to
briefly mention some of his other achievements and interests. In the early Ô60s Ron worked for the Utah Attorney General's office, and argued more than one hundred appeals before the Utah
Supreme Court and the Tenth Circuit - possibly more than anyone else. He continued that prolific output as a U.S. Magistrate Judge. When the auditors of the magistrate judge system
checked the records relating to Judge Boyce, they were astounded. Judge Boyce, along with Judge Alba, are two of the most productive magistrate judges in the United States - among other
things, writing, between them, some 300 Reports & Recommendations a year.
His non-legal reading was extensive. He bought over $20,000 of various books per year, and unlike a
lot of people who buy books for the impression it will create, Ron Boyce read what he bought. The house attests to this. Most of it is covered floor to ceiling with stacks of books. When
we have visited Ron and Darlene, we mainly sit in the back yard between Bobbie and Jack, their lovely Samoyed dogs, because there is insufficient room in the house.
Judge Boyce's
death has created a great void at the U.S. Courthouse these days. I can't really explain how Ron has been able to touch everyone's lives at the court. Nevertheless, he has. Much of his
appeal is that he has never sought approval or flattery, and the last thing he was interested in was winning a popularity contest. He was content to have his co-workers' respect, and he
certainly has obtained that.
In conclusion, Judge Boyce has accomplished as much as any person I know. He has excelled as husband, Air Force officer, teacher, judge, and servant
to the community and bar. He is truly unique. It is no exaggeration to say of Judge Boyce what Shakespeare's Hamlet said, describing his deceased father: "He was a man, take him for
all in all, I shall not look upon his like again."
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