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Seton Hall University

In Memoriam of Our Founder: Father Ian Boyd

In Memoriam: Father Joseph Ian Boyd, C.S.B.

Requiescat in Pace
January 23, 1935 – January 10, 2024

Reverend Ian Boyd, CSB"Human life has all the characteristics of a story. We are characters in a story told by God. Like a novel it has an ordered plot, meaning everything in our lives is significant and providential." -Ian Boyd, CSB 

Reverend J. Ian Boyd, CSB, the doughty champion of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, died in Edmonton on January 10, 2024, two weeks short of his eighty-ninth birthday. He was raised in Blaine Lake Saskatchewan where his father, John Boyd, had moved from Antigonish in 1913. As a young lawyer, having been admitted to the bar in Nova Scotia in 1898, he remembered hearing John A. Macdonald in person, and his life-long allegiance to the Conservative party bore fruit in Ian’s conservatism, both political and religious. In 1920 John Boyd married Jean Thyrza McManus, member of a distinguished Maritime family of United Empire Loyalist stock; the couple had seven children, Ian being the youngest. Family life at the Boyds was solidly Catholic. They attended Sunday Mass at the small church of Saint Andrew in Blaine Lake where the sermon would be delivered first in French and then in English. Ian recalled reciting the rosary on walks with his father, all fifteen decades. The household was literary; one item in particular had a lasting influence on the young Ian: back copies of G.K.’s Weekly, Chesterton’s newspaper.    

Ian attended local schools and then Saint Thomas More College, federated with the University of Saskatchewan from which he received his BA in 1956. Impressed by the intellectual apostolate of the Basilian Fathers at the College, Ian followed the example of an older brother, Leo, by entering the seminary. Ian was ordained to the priesthood in Toronto on December 15, 1963. Previously he had taught for two years at Saint Michael’s College School, with flair and originality. He inspired his students to astounding feats of memory. One learned a Wodehouse short story by heart; another could recite the Ukrainian Constitution... in Ukrainian. Ian himself enlivened predication classes in the seminary when he would recite from memory John Henry Newman’s magnificent sermon, The Second Spring, preached in 1851 to honor the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy to England. While studying theology in Toronto, Ian earned an MA from the University of Toronto with a thesis on Maurice Baring, a contemporary and friend of Chesterton: The Development of the Narrative Method in the Novels of Maurice Baring. Ian’s devotion to G.K.C. was further in evidence in his doctoral studies at the University of Aberdeen; his thesis, "Chesterton’s Fiction: A Political and Literary Study," was later published as The Novels of G.K. Chesterton (1975). Boyd returned to Saint Thomas More College to teach undergraduate English, his specialty being the modern English novel, with an emphasis on Christian authors such as T.S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, Flannery O’Connor and, of course, Chesterton. Ian was a keen cyclist. In 1984, for instance, he bicycled from Saskatoon to Edmonton to honor the visit of Pope John Paul II. Edmontonites must have been surprised to see his tall figure moving down the main street shortly before the papal entourage. Another time he cycled from Calgary to Vancouver through the Rocky Mountains. 

Attendance at a conference on the occasion of the centenary of Chesterton’s birth provided the incentive for Ian to found the Chesterton Institute and its journal, The Chesterton Review, in 1974. He liked to emphasize the Chestertonian character of the journal’s production with members of the faculty and staff pitching in to prepare each issue, a major academic journal originating from a small liberal arts college in the Canadian prairies. Ian became known outside Canada, mainly through local Chesterton societies, some of which had arisen because of The Chesterton Review. These contacts increased dramatically when in 1999 the Chesterton Institute moved from Saint Thomas More to Seton Hall University, located in South Orange (New Jersey, U.S.A). With more professional support and greater funding, the Institute was able to sponsor conferences around the world, sending Ian and his associates, Dermot Quinn and Gloria Garafulich-Grabois, to Europe, South America, Africa, Australia and the Far East. 

With failing health, by 2020 Ian had surrendered direction of the Institute to Mrs. Garafulich-Grabois and editorship of the Review to Dermot Quinn. Father Boyd was named President Emeritus of the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and Founding Editor of The Chesterton Review. That year, he moved to Edmonton where he lived with his sister Betty until he died.

"Larger than life" best describes Ian. Virtually single-handedly, he brought G.K. Chesterton to the attention of the contemporary world by an indefatigable promotion of his vast literary remains as well as by collecting scholars world-wide to write for The Chesterton Review. But it was his priesthood that was the center of his long career as an academic, a teacher, an editor and a minister of the Gospel. His profound Christian faith impressed everyone who met him, and it gave his priestly ministry a sensitivity and effectiveness far beyond the ordinary, whether among the indigenous community in Yellowknife, where he would fill in for his brother Leo, an Oblate priest; or in a college or university chapel; or as celebrant in a local parish church in Saskatoon, South Orange or Edmonton. A brilliant conversationalist, he could draw effortlessly on his vast reading to provide le mot juste to drive home a point. His gift for friendship was enhanced by a wit which could be as devastating as it was, paradoxically, kindly meant, for like Chesterton he was acutely aware of what was ridiculous in contemporary society.

The funeral was celebrated on Saturday, January 20th in Saint Andrew’s church, Edmonton. Archbishop Richard Smith presided, Glenn McDonald, CSB preached the homily and Kevin Storey, CSB, Basilian superior general, led the final commendation. Interment was at Holy Cross Cemetery, Edmonton.

Obituary prepared by Fr. Daniel Callam, CSB
Member of the Editorial Board of The Chesterton Review

Read a message from Interim President Katia Passerini »

To read the press release of the obituary, please click here.

Tributes

The G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture is collecting tributes and messages in honor of Father Ian Boyd. Those who would like to share a tribute message are welcome to email the Chesterton Institute at [email protected].

To read some of the tributes received, please click here.

Obituaries

Books and Essays Published

G. K. Chesterton: A Centenary Appraisal
Edited by John Sullivan (London: Paul Elek, 1974) Essay: Philosophy in Fiction

The Novels of G. K. Chesterton 
(London: Paul Elek, 1975)

G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis: The Riddle of Joy Essay: The Legendary Chesterton
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989) 

Chesterton and the Modernist Crisis
Editor, (So. Orange: The Chesterton Press, 1989) 

The Catholic Imagination of J. R. R. Tolkien
Editor (So. Orange: The Chesterton Press, 2003)

The Poetry of G. K. Chesterton 
(Dale Publishers)

Articles Published

"Hilaire Belloc: The Myth and the Man" 
(The Tablet)

"The Advantages of Limitations"
(The Tablet)

"Chesterton and Distributism"
(New BlackFriars 55), 1974-75

"Chesterton and Poland: Myth and Reality"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. V, no. 1), 1978-79

"Chesterton and the Bible"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XI, no. 1), 1985                                                                                          

“In His Image: G. K. Chesterton"
(The Canadian Catholic Review, 3.5, 179-186), 1985

"Chesterton on Censorship"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XII, no. 1), 1986

"Gregory Macdonald, OBE, Requiescat in Pace"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XIII, no. 4) , 1987

"Something to Celebrate"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XIV, no. 4), 1988

"Dorothy Edith Collins, Requiescat in Pace"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XIV, no. 4), 1988

"Chesterton’s Anglican Reaction to Modernism"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XV, nos. 1 and 2), 1989

“Parallels between G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis"
(The Chesterton Review, C. S. Lewis Special Issue, vol. XVII, nos. 3 and 4), 1991

"Journalism as Parable"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XVIII, no. 2), 1992

“Finding a Safe Place”
(The Canadian Catholic Review, 12.2, 9-10), 1994

“A Canadian Priest and Educator”
(The Canadian Catholic Review, 14.2), 1996

“Original Sin in Agatha Christie”
(The Canadian Catholic Review, 14.6, 19-19), 1996
(originally published in the Catholic daily Avvenire, January 12, 1996), under the title “Padre Brown e il ‘peccato originale’ di Miss Marple”)

"Joseph Mitchell: A New York Chestertonian"
(The Chesterton Review, Special Polish Issue, vol. XXXIII, nos. 1 and 2), 2007

"Estrategias para la Evangelización de la Cultura" (Argentina)
(The Chesterton Review – Special Spanish Edition, vol. I, no. 1), 2007

"G. K. Chesterton: The Teacher of Hope"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XXXIII, nos. 3 and 4), 2007

"The Poetry of G. K. Chesterton"
(The Chesterton Review, vol, XXXIV, nos. 1 and 2), 2008

"A Theological Reading of The Man Who Was Thursday"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XXXIV, nos. 3 and 4), 2008

"El Maestro Legendario"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Spanish Issue, vol. II, no. 1), 2008

"Chesterton y C.S. Lewis"
(The Chesterton Review —Special Spanish Issue, vol. II, no. 1), 2008

"Estrategias para la Evangelización de la Cultura" (Chile)
(The Chesterton Review – Special Spanish Edition, vol. II, no. 1), 2008

"Chesterton y Santo Tomas" (conference opening)
(The Chesterton Review – Special Spanish Issue, vol. III, no. 1), 2009

"La civilización del amor: escritores cristianos"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Spanish Issue, vol. III, no. 1), 2009

"Chesterton e C. S. Lewis"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Portuguese Issue, vol. I, no. 1), 2009

"Chesterton and the English Literary Revivals of the Twentieth Century in England and France"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XXXV, nos. 3 and 4), 2009

"Chesterton and Ortodoxias: Leyendas y Realidades"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Spanish Ediiton, vol. IV, no. 1), 2010

"Una lectura teológica de El Hombre que fue Jueves"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Spanish Edition, vol. IV, no. 1), 2010

"G. K. Chesterton e Santo Tomas de Aquino"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Portuguese Edition, vol. II, no. 1), 2010

"Santo Tomas de Aquino, G. K. Chesterton e o pensamento social distributista"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Portuguese Edition, vol. II, vol. II, no. 1), 2010

"Chesterton et les renouveaux litteraires en France et en Angleterre au XX siecle"
(The Chesterton Review – Special French Edition, vol. I, no. 1), 2010

"Chesterton in America"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XXXVI, nos. 3 and 4), 2010

"G. K. Chesterton: Cio che non van el mondo"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Italian Edition, vol. I, no. 1), 2011

"Parables of Father Brown"
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XXXVII, nos. 3 and 4), 2011 

"Las Parabolas del Padre Brown" (Spanish and Catalonian)
(The Chesterton Review, Special Spanish Edition, vol. V, no. 1), 2011/2012

"La Balada del Caballo Blanco"
(The Chesterton Review, Special Spanish Edition, vol. V, no. 1), 2011/2012

"Chesterton comme giornalista"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Italian Edition, Italian, vol. II, no. 1), 2012

"O que ha de errado com o mundo"
(The Chesterton Review – Special Portuguese Edition, vol. III, no. 1), 2013

"The Restoration of Freedom, Initiative, Property and the Free Family"
(The Chesterton Review – vol. XLI, nos. 3 and 4), 2014

“Chesterton in Canada: Landscape and Legend”
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XLII, nos. 1 and 2), 2016

“Chesterton and Eugenics”
(The Chesterton Review, vol. XLIII, nos. 1 and 2), 2017

“Journalism as Parable”
(The Chesterton Review, Special Journalism Issue, vol. XXLIII, nos. 3 and 4), 2017

“Chesterton, Journalism and the Sacramental Imagination”
(The Chesterton Review, Special Croatian Issue, vol. XLV, nos. 3 and 4), 2019

“Chesterton y la Eugenesia”
(The Chesterton Review, Special Spanish Edition, vol. VIII, no. 1), 208-2019

A Chestertonian Conversation with Fr. Ian Boyd Screening - Tuesday, December 13, 2022

"A Chestertonian Conversation with Father Ian Boyd" – a 27-minute documentary produced and directed by the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture ©2022 at Seton Hall University. This video presentation is from a 2013 interview with Father Boyd.

Father Ian Boyd, C.S.B.

Fr. Ian Boyd with Chesterton banner

In August 2020, after 46 years of outstanding service, Father Ian Boyd, C.S.B., announced his retirement as editor of The Chesterton Review, the journal he founded in Canada in 1974. He was been succeeded as editor by Professor Dermot Quinn, his colleague and friend of many years at the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University. Father Boyd, who will continue to serve as Founder and President Emeritus of the Institute, hopes to return to Seton Hall for the 50th birthday of the Review in four years’ time. A plaque and permanent exhibition have been placed in Walsh Library to honor Father Boyd’s 20 years at Seton Hall and the work of the Chesterton Institute in Canada and the United States since 1974.   

Father Boyd’s retirement brought to a close one of the longest editorships of any literary journal in the English-speaking world. Only Robert Silvers of The New York Review of Books enjoyed a longer tenure. It also marked the culmination of a career of exceptional achievement. “There really is nothing like The Chesterton Review,” Professor Philip Jenkins wrote, “and if there ever was, it existed in a bygone Golden Age of journals and magazines.” 

plaque By the same token, there is no one like Father Boyd. A scholar of international reputation, he has been the leading figure in the world-wide revival of interest in Chesterton that has taken place over the last 50 years. Beginning with the publication of his ground-breaking monograph The Novels of G.K. Chesterton and continuing with his work as editor of The Chesterton Review, he promoted serious academic study of Chesterton and his circle and of the intellectual tradition that they represent. In addition, he traveled the globe to speak at Chesterton conferences and seminars, an instantly recognizable and much-loved figure in universities across the world, captivating audiences with his trademark erudition, wit and humor. Like Chesterton’s Father Brown, Father Boyd has a way of appearing in unusual places and solving unusual problems, a scholar’s scholar but also a priest’s priest, being gentle, firm, wise, insightful and benign. Chesterton could have had no better representative for the last five decades.

“I have, almost literally, very large shoes to fill,” said Professor Dermot Quinn, paying tribute to Father Boyd’s work as editor of The Chesterton Review. “Everything he did for the journal was marked by his wonderfully sharp and penetrating intelligence, his extraordinary breath of reading, his creative editorial imagination, and his marvelous gift for anecdote and apposite quotation. He also insisted that good writing should be at the heart of the Review, that its prose should be worthy of its subject. I hope to continue that tradition.” A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and New College, Oxford, Professor Quinn has been a member of the History Department at Seton Hall since 1990. The author of three books and many articles, he has written and spoken extensively on Chestertonian themes for over 30 years.

For more information about our work, please peruse our website or contact us by e-mail. 

Father Ian Boyd, C.S.B. – President Emeritus & Founding Editor of The Chesterton Review
Dermot Quinn – Editor, The Chesterton Review
Gloria Garafulich-Grabois – Director, G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and Managing Editor of The Chesterton Review