Irvin Basil Boyd Sr., 87, a nationally recognized American antiques collector who was co-owner of a Mt. Airy funeral home for 17 years, died Oct. 20 at his home in Fort Washington.
For more than 40 years, starting in 1968, Mr. Boyd was proprietor, along with his wife, the late Lillian Dolores Horn, of Meeting House Antiques, a business they operated from their Fort Washington home, formerly the site of the Whitemarsh Friends Meeting.
In antique shows across the country and up and down the East Coast, the couple displayed their vast and exquisite collections of Queen Anne and Chippendale period furniture. Their displays included the brass, copper and China accessories that filled three showrooms on their property.
Earlier Mr. Boyd was a partner with James Fyfe in the Fyfe and Boyd Funeral Home, at 7047 Germantown Ave. in Mt. Airy, until selling his interest in the business in 1968.
Raised in Germantown, Mr. Boyd's education at Germantown High School was interrupted when he enlisted in the Navy at 17 during World War II. He served as a cook aboard several ships in the South Pacific, including some that made landings in the Philippines and on Okinawa. He was on one of the first ships to make port in Japan after the atomic bombs were dropped in August of 1945.
Returning home in 1946, he resumed his education and attended Eckles College of Mortuary Science, then affiliated with Temple University.
Mr. Boyd was active for many years as an elder and trustee of both the Mt. Airy Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. He was a Mason, a member of the Mt. Airy Lions Club, the Mt. Airy Businessmen's Association and the American Legion William Dixon Boulden Post No. 10.
He is survived by sons Irvin Basil Boyd Jr., of Fort Washington, and Knickerbocker Stephen Boyd, of Goshen, Ind.; a daughter, Priscilla Boyd Angelos, of Ambler, and nine grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a son, Jonathan Horn Boyd, in 2002, and by his wife, in 2009.
Memorial services will be private, with interment at Ivy Hill Cemetery. – WF
