Alan S. Boyd

Alan Stephenson Boyd was the first United States Secretary of Transportation, appointed by Lyndon Johnson.

Early Life

Boyd was born in July of 1922 (different sources have different dates for his birthday) in Jacksonville Florida. He served in the United States Army transportation command during World War II. He graduated from law school at the University of Virginia in 1948. He practiced law in Florida, and was on a commission exploring the regulation of the transportation industry.

Public Service

He was appointed to the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1959 by Dwight Eisenhower and promoted to chairman by John F. Kennedy. He helped the airline industry by standardizing fare reductions, and by approving government subsidies to encourage airline service for smaller cities. He was appointed undersecretary of commerace for transportation in 1965 by Lyndon Johnson. He was unpopular with labor leaders when he advocated reducing government restrictions on the maritime industry, and when he denounced featherbedding by railroad workers. Boyd was part of a committee that lobbied for the creation of the United States Department of Transportation, bringing together many government agencies related to the transportation industry.

Boyd became the first Secretary of Transportation in November of 1966. In that capacity he worked on a huge variety of areas including airports, the air traffic control system, automobile safety, driver education, alcoholism, and the highway beautification program (a pet project of first lady Lady Bird Johnson). One of his sources of power was control over spending on the interstate highways. He was unsuccessful in trying to encourage passenger train service.

Private Industry

When the Richard M. Nixon administration took power, Boyd left the government and became the president of the Illinois Central Railroad. The government investigated the potential conflict of interest because the the railroad received aid from Boyd's department before he resigned, but no wrongdoing was found.

Boyd was later the president of Amtrak, and the president of Airbus Industries.

In 1979 he became the chairman of Warner Blue & Mahan, a Washington DC based consulting firm working on new technology ventures.