Bill Boyd was President of Rotary International in 2006/2007, only the second New Zealander to hold that position. In that capacity Bill and Lorna visited 40 countries, some several times. He was Chair of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International in 2011/2012 and has been appointed to fill an unexpected vacancy as a Trustee in 2016/2018.

Bill Boyd joined the Rotary Club of Wellington South in 1971 and was club President in 1978/79. He was District Governor of District 9940 in 1983/84 and he and Lorna moved to Auckland the following year. His first international appointment was in 1991 as Regional Rotary Foundation Co-ordinator, and he has been a member of or chaired a Rotary International or Rotary Foundation committee in most years since. He was a RI Director from 1998 to 2000 and Treasurer of Rotary International in 1999/2000. Bill was Chairman of Rotary Down Under, the regional magazine, for several years. He chaired the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group from 2012 to2016.

Bill left school at 15 to work in his father’s bookshop and retired in 1995 as General Manager of Gordon and Gotch Magazines Ltd.

Bill has been awarded the Rotary Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award and Citation for Meritorious Service, a Distinguished Service Award by Rotary Down Under and was presented with the Queens Service Order for Community Service in the 2007 New Zealand New Year’s Honours List and made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013.