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Show Background Report . . . Former Mayor, Family Like leefi, : Community Soils Them for Hems By today's standards, Moab businessman, and former Mayor, Norman Boyd, might have been 'termed a juvenile delinquent delin-quent when he was young. But the word hadn't been coined during the Roaring Twenties when he roamed ,the streets of Houston, Tex-,as Tex-,as a newsboy and amateur epeakeasy entertainer. Those were the big newspaper news-paper days, he recalls. .Crystal radios had just been 'introduced, and reception left much to be desired. The only means of keeping up on the spectacular news of the era was through the daily papers, and it was no Jtete for a newsboy to sell 300 a day. A gangster roundup was welcome news to the newsboys. news-boys. Ordinarily they were confined to an area news-heat, news-heat, but on extras they pould "boot jacket", anywhere any-where in the city. Norman's biggest sales day aws when the story broke about the Lindburg kidnapping. In 1928 the national Democratic convention was jield in Houston, and Norman Nor-man covered the beat as hewslboy. He remembers the thrill of shaking hands with President Hoover's opponent, Al Smith. Hi:; favorite customer, however was Jessie H. Jones, who paid 50 cents for each paper, pa-per, and later served under un-der President Roosevelt as Director of RCA. The Boyd family owned the traditional car of the era a Model T. Occasionally Occas-ionally they made the all-day all-day 120-mile trip to Garrison Garri-son to visit his grandparents. grandpar-ents. Norman's father always al-ways carried a .45 on his lap as a safety precaution against gangiters. As Nor- , 'man remembers," he cocked' the gun only once, when ithey were forced to devour de-vour ( from the narrow Wacktcp highway to a sandy road. The car got stuck in the sand, and they heard a rustle in the bordering bord-ering brush. The family was pretty shook up, but .the gangster proved to be a cow. Becomes Barber i As a senior Norman quit Sam Houston High School where President Johnson taught speech and debate in the '30's to follow his father's footsteps as a barber. bar-ber. (He later finished his education at Pearl Harbor during the war.) He went :,to work for the Shell Oil Refinery, and 939 married fine former Maxine Steen, following a 2-year courtship which began at a bus stop while she was 'working as adental assistant. assist-ant. Win en Wbrld War II was declared Norman volunte- ered in the U. S. Navy. For Z-Vt years he served as ; Petty Officer on the U.S.S. White Plains, a small car- , ,rier which fed large car-triers car-triers in the South Pacific. ;He maintained aircraft, and was aerial gunner in the Gilbert and Marshall Island campaigns Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Saipan .Guam, under Admiral Bull Halsley's Task Force. During the last 18 months ef service Norman was stationed at Pearl Harbor. He emerged from the war with the usual string ot :3c'U'Jh Pacific ribbons, and 3 bronze stars. Attends College He used his GI Ball to attend at-tend Houston University for awhile, then accepted full-time full-time work as a 1st class boi'Iermaker for Shell. The Boyd's bought a home, and but for a turn o fate might be there yet. , Instead, Mrs. Boyd's brother, bro-ther, Charles Steen, telephoned tele-phoned in 1952 from Moab, j Jtah, ,-with some exciting news: "I've found uranium hit the mother lode." The Boyd's didn't know what he was talking about, but ' Charles was adamant about his find. "What do you want out of life," he asked his sister. "Happiness," she answered. Which, the i Boyd's admit, is exactly .what the uraniujm strike (dealt tehm. After Maxine was appointed ap-pointed director of Utex Corporation, founded by Steen to put his MiVida ore into production, the Boyds accepted his invitation to move to Moab, where most of the family now lived. Even Maxine and Charles mother, Mrs. Rose Shu-maker, Shu-maker, who. once ran a boarding house to support her two children, had' moved mov-ed to the little Utah town. Moab Was Home ! Moab was booming by 'this time, and living facilities fac-ilities ware a premium. They lived in motels and apartments apart-ments until their home in Steenville was completed. Norman took a brush-up course in barbering obtained ob-tained a Utah license, and opened the Enquire Barber Shop and adjoining Vogue Beauty Shop in a new building Steen constructed on Center Street. From that point through the TGS production boom, four chairs in the shop were constantly busy, and often the doors were closed with 10 customers waiting for haircuts. This is the boom-town boom-town business volumn businessmen bus-inessmen are inclined to torr.pare present day volumn vol-umn with, Mr. Boyd says. No wonder it seems there has been a recession here. The Boyds grew with the town after they settled in Mcab. Their daughter, Patty, Pat-ty, started kindergarten in the building now used as Junior high school library she began elementary ,'xhools in boomtown half-sessions, half-sessions, first in the present pres-ent junior high school which then housed. 12 grades, then became one of the first students to attend at-tend -school in the new Helen M. Knight Elemen tary. This year she is a senior at the new Grand I County School. Her brother Norman Charles, will have 13. more orthodox education; (he is a second grader at .the Helen M. Knight Ele-! Ele-! mentary. Becomes Mayor Ncrman involved in civic .affairs of the growing city and eventually became its ! Mayor. It had always been ; his philosophy that every I American should bo a politician poli-tician if not as active official, at least interested enough to take sides with issues. He maintained that. interest in Moab, and in 1960 was asked to run for 'Mayor. A deeply religious ! man, he reverted to prayer i before he accepted the nomination. "I always ask the Lord's help in everything every-thing of major importance" He was unanimously nom- ; inated iby the Citizens Party, and in 19G1 elected to the office. i Mayor Boyd was one of Moab's most dedicated .leaders. He describes the .four ears he served as the happiest of his life. It was a good education in cit' government, and at the end of his term his estimation of the general public had soared one of the most valuable assets of the job. Without doubt, enforcing the trailer ordinance was ,the most controversial issue is-sue during his term. Half of the population lived in .trailers, scattered belter .skelter ever the city. Resent ment when they were ordered) or-dered) into parks was two-sided, two-sided, both from renters and rentors. But Norman says now he thinks all concerned con-cerned agree Moab is a much better town since the trailer ' homes " are concentrated. concen-trated. "That's the way it was 'as Mayor one had to do what would benefit the most people." Move to Hilltop Shortly after becoming Mayor the boyds moved into the Steen mansion on a hill in North Moab. The iteen family had moved to Reno and the house was vacant. Mr. Steen asked his sister and her family to occupy oc-cupy the house in lieu of enlarging their own. Moab city annexed the property to square up the city limits and make it possible for Mr. Boyd to continue his role as Mayor. The Mayor's home lent dignity to the city throughout through-out the reign. They generously gener-ously opened! it for many public affairs, and in 196-3 celebrated their Silver Wed ding Anniversary with a dinner for 150 guests. The hou've prompted one out-of town columnist to comment on the marvels of Moab a place where a $175 a month Mayor can live in a ,half-imiUion-dollar home. Mayor Boyd has held an imposing number of offices during his years in Moab. ,TIe is now director of the rfr- " : ; T i- . - . 1 ,, ..; ....... -.. .. . : ' , X ft1 ' " ' : , ( ' i ' -. . i k . v r., j .--. ; fV K ' ! ' LA s f V', f.-, ; I ,.4. , I ? "V ' S J ' I j ' , ' - ' ' " - - if - rA i y - t i ' i kv j.m- i .. .. i"1 C m Moab Barber and Beauty Shop proprietor, propri-etor, Norman Boyd, at appointment desk in the nswly - renovated Vogue New Horizons School; chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Movie Committee; Com-mittee; one of 16 Utahns appointed from Washington Washing-ton D. C. to serve as Utah State Council for the Small Business Administration; and a deacon, choir director, dir-ector, music director, and men's Bible class teacher at the First Baptist Church. He is a past Master of Masonic' Lodge LaSal No. 30, and for three years served as director of the Utah Municipal League before be-fore being elected vice pros ident during his last year as Mayor. In 1916 he traveled trav-eled to Atlantic City as State delegate to the Democratic Demo-cratic convention. Mrs. Boyd Busy Mrs. Boydj is active in Moab affairs too. She is Grand Conductress of the Order of Eastern Star for the State of Utah, and as such will be an eligible candidate for State Grand Matron in two years. She is an active Newcomer Club worker ,and has hosted many welcome coffees a I. her home. She is also active in the Women's Bowling Assoc., and for several years has served on the Grand County Welfare Board1. ! Looking back, Mr. Boyd says his brother- in - laws mining success was no surprise sur-prise to ithem. He was always al-ways a studious,, intent, person. If asked anything he didn't know, he headed for the library and soon knew it. Finding Mi-Vidn was partly luck, all min- . HIM Beauty Salon. The former mayor and. active civic worker says about Moab: "Where could I find a better place to live." ing is. But Charles knew what he was looking for and methodically went in search for it. Inrtinctively genei'ov.s all his life, Steen insisted Iris family share his success, r.'.id' was responsible res-ponsible fo- Boyds move to Moab. li was a good move, in l :cl, "anyway Charles success has affected affect-ed our lives has been for the better," the Boyd ; a-grce. a-grce. About Moab. the Boyds also agree. "We d-.n'i live here because we have to where elre could we find more to offer. Unlike our j'ometown. Houston, it is not too big. not too humid; winters are mild, business potential excellent. The city has a future, especially in tourism and t!-.e resultant result-ant growth. On this basis Norman has just completed extensive renovations at lis Vogue Beauty Shop. All n a'!, we've found in Moab .vhat we were looking for hapfines?." |