Tributes to Skip
(by Gary Wittman)
Skip Boyd and I were very good friends through much of high school and a few years beyond. After high school we both joined the Navy at different times and ended up in different divisions of the Navy. Fate had it that we were stationed close enough that we were able to see each other often.
Skip had a very strong personality and never hesitated to let you know his opinion. He had the ability to excite people's emotions which was beneficial or detrimental depending on his mood. Skip would never hesitate to help another in need. I think he always wanted to be a hero. I recall a time when a tornado had done considerable damage south of Garnett. He somehow got word of it and showed up at my house immediately to ask me to go with him to help anyone in need. There was not much we could do but Skip was more than willing to help.
At times Skip seemed dissatisfied about who he was and tended to exaggerate the things he did to make up for this feeling of inadequacy. I did not understand these low mood swings but did not let it effect our friendship. We seemed to try to draw on each other's strengths while we were maturing emotionally.
One memory of Skip that is most prominent to me is of a time when I was in boot camp. There I was this shy, country boy for the first time far from home. I was feeling homesick, lost and out of contact with any thing I knew. One evening, while I was washing my clothes by hand at the "washing stone," Skip appeared out of nowhere. He had been there longer than me and was going home in a week or two. He risked getting into trouble by leaving his barracks to wander around until he found me just to say hi. We talked a short while before he returned to his barracks. That may seem like an insignificant incident, but it did wonders for my spirits that carried me right through the rest of boot camp.
(by Denny Davis)
Skip and I knew each other from the time we were babies but I don't really know why we were such good friends. We shared similar backgrounds but were very different in many ways. One of the things we did have in common was the same (weird!) sense of humor. He knew exactly what to say to make me laugh - even at times and in places when I shouldn't have been laughing.
We also both tended to over-dramatize and over-sentimentalize things just a little! After several people read the "good" parts of Lady Chatterly's Lover in study hall, Skip and I were the only ones to read the entire book. Then we discussed the fact that even in the US in the 60's there were "classes" that separate people.
This photo on the left is my favorite one of Skip. We tried to set it up so it would look like we were having a wild party. This was before we actually went to that kind of party and the reason we were doing it is explained in the party section of the site. However I accidentally moved my hand and the "Coca-Cola" on the bottle showed in the picture. He knew I didn't like beer and after that would tease me by saying I disliked it so much I couldn't even pretend to drink it.
I don't think most people understood Skip - even those of us who knew him well. Maybe he never really understood himself. I know that when I found out about his death I felt that I had lost a big part of my past. It took me a very long time to adjust and still get sad when I think about not ever seeing him again. He was one of the few people who would take my side - even if he thought I was wrong.
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