ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS — The borough honored the memory of environmentalist-historian Paul Boyd on Saturday, Oct. 22 with the planting of a tree in the Municipal Yacht Harbor.
Shade Tree Commission Chairman Louise I. Donoghue presided over the ceremony that drew over 50 residents atthe base of the Colorado Blue Spruce planted at the entrance of the marina. A plaque in Boyd’s honor will installed at a later date.
Among those speaking during the ceremony were former
Mayor Peter E. Donoghue, borough Historical Society President
Joann Dellosso, Richard and Carolyn Campo Marcolus, Boyd’s
friend Victor Zak and Benson Chiles, representing the Front
Porch Club, who presented a check for $500 toward the purchase of the tree.
The tree purchase was financed jointly by the Shade Tree Commission and the Front Porch Club, which applied funds from its annual Chilifest to the project.
The planting is part of a commission program to honor local residents, past or present, for their efforts on behalf of the community.
Boyd, who died earlier this year, was a long-time activist in the Historical Society, helping secure funding to refurbish the society’s museum, the Strauss Mansion, and he was society president at the time of his death.
He was a founder and long-time chairman of the borough’s Environmental Commission and played a major role in the establishment of the town’s Lenape Woods Preserve and Monmouth County’s Popomora Park. Boyd also worked to acquire the financing to complete the Bayshore Trail. He also repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to a greener borough by orchestrating Earth Day observations and beach cleanups.
Boyd also successfully documented the borough’s historic past, as author of his 2004 the book “Atlantic Highlands: From Lenape Camps to Bayshore Towns.”
