The first Canadian Black national news anchors, George Elroy Boyd, has died at the age of 68 in Montreal.
Boyd was born in Halifax and he was one of the principal anchors on CBC Newsworld.
While announcing his obituary recently, Halifax Chronicle Herald said he enrolled in Nova Scotia Institute of Technology’s broadcasting program after he studied at Saint Mary’s University.
After leaving broadcasting in the 1990s, Boyd started a career in writing.
His obituary said: “He has written for radio, television, motion pictures, and also became a songwriter for his radio play, God is My Warden [title song].
“With his debut play, Shine Boy (1988), George became the first Indigenous African-Nova Scotian to have a play professionally produced on the main stage of Halifax’s Neptune Theatre.”
The obituary made it known that Boyd was appointed writer in conjunction with Neptune Theatre in 1995. Boyd’s play, Consecrated Ground, got nominated for a Governor General’s Award for drama in 2000.
Another of his plays, Wade in the Water, won Montreal English Critics Circle Award nomination in 2005.
Boyd represented Canada at the Rafi Peer Theatre Festival which took place in Lahore, Pakistan.
