Oral Histories

James Boyd was a mining executive and military and government administrator from 1941 to 1987. Boyd was born in 1904 in Kanowna, West Australia, and spent his early educational years there, in England (1917-1921), and in Hollywood, California (1921-1923). He went on to attend the California Institute of Technology from 1923 to 1927 with a degree in engineering and later received his graduate degree from the Colorado School of Mines in 1932. In 1941, Boyd entered the military and was part of the Commodities Division for the War Production Board, where he dealt with the procurement of critical minerals. After the war, he became director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1947-1951), director of minerals exploration, Kennecott Corp. (1951-1960), and president of Copper Range Co., where he retired in 1971. In this interview, Boyd discusses his Australian and English background, engineering education at CalTech, WWII, German industrial redevelopment, U.S. Bureau of Mines, National Commission on Materials Policy (1971-1973), post-retirement life, National Academy of Sciences committees on materials, alternative energy, natural resources and the move to Carmel, California.