Sara Gear Boyd, 67, former Vermont lawmaker
MONTPELIER - Sara Gear Boyd, a former Republican leader in the Vermont Legislature and secretary of the Republican National Committee, died Tuesday at a hospice in Williston. She was 67 and had been battling cancer.
The Burlington native and University of Vermont graduate rose to prominence at a time when her home city was moving to the left and had elected socialist Bernie Sanders as mayor.
Ms. Gear Boyd was elected to the Vermont House in 1984, serving from 1985 to 1992, the last four years as majority leader. She later served in the Vermont Senate, and her fellow Republicans elected her leader there as well, making her the first woman in the country to serve as majority leader in both houses of a state legislature, according to a state party biography.
She also served as a Republican National Committee woman for Vermont beginning in 1992 and held several leadership roles in that organization. In 2003, President Bush appointed her commissioner of the White House Fellows.
"It is rare such a kind and driven person comes along; Sara will truly be missed by her colleagues here in the Republican Party as well as the Vermont Legislature," said Robert "Mike" Duncan, RNC chairman.
Former governor Howard Dean, now chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also had praise for Ms. Gear Boyd.
"I was saddened to learn of the passing of Sara Gear Boyd, who I had the honor of serving with for many years in the Vermont state Legislature," Dean said.
"We may not have always agreed on politics, but I always respected her commitment to our state and enjoyed working with her. Today, I join Vermonters in mourning her passing and offering my thoughts and prayers to her family."
Ms. Gear Boyd's first husband died in 1991; she married Joseph Boyd in 1999. He said Wednesday that in the days before her death, she had telephone calls from Bush and his father, former president George H.W. Bush, as well as from Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor whose unsuccessful presidential campaign she had supported.
"When the president of the United States calls you to see how you're doing and wish you well . . . that's power," Boyd said.
As a Republican National Committee member since 1992, Ms. Gear Boyd served on the RNC's executive, budget, and rules committees. She was vice chairwoman of the 1996 Republican National Convention and cochaired that year's Republican Platform Convention. She was elected secretary of the RNC in 2003, a role that includes the ceremonial reading of the roll of the states at the party's national conventions.
"We all were looking forward to her calling the roll at [this year's] convention in early September," Governor Jim Douglas said. "Sadly, that won't happen. I know that her colleagues from around the country will remember her fondly" for her contributions to the party, he said.
Douglas praised Ms. Gear Boyd's work in the Vermont Legislature, calling her "a common sense, mainstream Vermonter who cared deeply about our state." And he praised the way she battled illness.
"She was a real fighter. She battled cancer for years, rebounding multiple times," the governor said. "She was always upbeat, always optimistic, always had a smile on her face - a real role model for anyone facing adversity." 