Dr. Gerald Vance Boyles

Dr. Gerald V. Boyles was reunited with God on May 12, 2023. Dr. Boyles was born August 14, 1944, in King, North Carolina. He is survived by his wife Ellen N. Boyles, his sons, Cary V. Boyles (Tracey Rae) and Bradley N. Boyles, and his sister, Myra Morgan. He is also survived by his brother-in-law Van Neal (Vicki), brother-in-law Norman Venable and sister in-law Betty Boyles and sister-in-law Carolyn Boyles, along with many nieces, nephews and cousins. He is also survived by his precious cat, Guinevere. Predeceased are his sister Nancy Venable, brother Donald Boyles, brother-in-law Jack Morgan, as well as his parents, Joseph and Ruth Boyles.

Dr. Boyles was born and raised in King, North Carolina. He was the son of loving and caring parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Boyles, and was the youngest of four siblings. His family was very instrumental in his development, teaching him values that have remained with him throughout his life. He attended public schools in King and graduated from King High School in 1962.

He enrolled at Wake Forest University in the fall of 1962. At Wake, he played one year of basketball and four years of baseball. He graduated in 1966 with a degree in Business Administration with majors in finance and economics. Reluctantly accepting the fact that he would not be able to hit well enough to earn a living in professional baseball, which had been his childhood dream, he enrolled in the MBA program at the University of South Carolina in the fall of 1966. In June, prior to moving to Columbia, he married his long-time friend and high school sweetheart, Ellen Neal. In June they would have celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary. He credits many of the accomplishments in his life to Ellen.

In the summer of 1967 Dr. Boyles completed the MBA program and he and Ellen welcomed the arrival of their first son, Cary. Dr. Boyles received a job offer from IBM Corporation and was prepared to move to the Research Triangle in Raleigh, NC, but he was then offered an assistantship in the Ph.D. program in the College of Business at USC. Gerald and Ellen chose to remain in Columbia. He completed the Ph.D. program with a major in Finance in 1972. During the summer of 1971, he had the opportunity of teaching data processing at Coastal Carolina College. His last year in the Ph.D. program he was appointed instructor and taught statistics and data processing. In the summer of 1972, they welcomed their second son, Brad.

Dr. Boyles accepted a position as assistant professor of finance at Old Dominion University beginning fall of 1972. He taught finance courses in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. In 1973, he was offered a position as an associate professor of business and chairman of the Division of Business Administration at USC Coastal. At the time, Coastal was transitioning from a two-year college to a four-year college with the USC system. He led the development of a four-year program in business. He knew he would face many challenges. However, the excitement of getting in on the ground floor and leading in the development of a unique, four-year degree program in business was too enticing to turn down and he accepted the offer, beginning a thirty-five-year journey, which culminated with him being awarded Distinguished Professor Emeritus status at his retirement in 2007.

In 1986 Dr. Boyles was selected Outstanding Teacher of the Year at Coastal Carolina University. He was a finalist six other years. The Academy of Economics and Finance selected Dr. Boyles as its Educator of the Year in 2006. Dr. Boyles was holder of the William J. Baxley, Jr. Applied Business Professorship for the years 2000 – 2007. The Professorship was established by Larry and Suzanne Coats in recognition of Professor Baxley.

The staff at Coastal were optimistic that Coastal would one day become one of the finest universities in the Southeast and were dedicated to achieving that goal. For seven years, Dr. Boyles headed the business program. During the seventh year, the Division of Business was renamed the College of Business, and Dr. Boyles became its first dean. He was the only finance professor for several years. He was then promoted to professor of finance in 1983. In 1986, he completed the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) program and was awarded the CFA certificate, considered by financial institutions as the most prestigious designation in the investment profession.

Throughout his career, Dr. Boyles published numerous research articles, mostly in business finance and investments, and presented many papers at professional meetings. He is extremely proud of his investment class bringing home CCU’s first national championship by winning the AT&T Collegiate Investment Challenge in 1992, beating competitors such as Harvard, Wharton and NYU. The most gratifying events for Dr. Boyles were the completion of the Wall College of Business building and the accreditation of the Wall College of Business by AACSB, both in the early 1990s and these events marked the fulfillment of many dreams and hard work by the faculty, staff, alumni and community supporters. This marked a huge change from 1973 when the Division of Business was housed in a mobile home next to the ditch behind the Singleton Building.

Mostly, Dr. Boyles enjoyed teaching finance. Nothing was more rewarding to him than seeing his students graduate and become productive members of society. He remained in touch with many of his former students and he loved hearing from them. When not in the classroom, he could be found on the golf course on many occasions.

Dr. Boyles’ career at CCU ended after the spring of 2008. He was scheduled to teach part time and was forced to withdraw because of health issues. He was diagnosed with an extremely rare autoimmune disease that attacked and destroyed his lungs. He received a double lung transplant at Duke in April 2010. He was eternally grateful to his donor. He was also profoundly grateful to his family; especially his wife Ellen, and his sons and daughter-in-law and many friends who cared for and supported him during his journey.

Visitation will be on Sunday, May 21, 2023 at McMillan Small from 4:00pm to 6:00pm; with a memorial service on Monday May 22, 2023 at First United Methodist Church at 11:00 am. A graveside service will be held in King, North Carolina later. 

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that a donation be made to Duke Health in support of the Palmer Transplant Research Fund. Please make checks to Duke Health Development, ATTN: Jillian Ream, Box 90581, Durham, North Carolina 27708.  Or visit https://www.gifts.duke.edu/dukehealth/ to make a secure gift online or First United Methodist Church, P. O. Box 1367, Myrtle Beach, SC, 29578.

The family will always be thankful for Duke Hospital, Dr. Scott Palmer and Lung Transplant coordinator, Janie Hainline.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Dr. Gerald Vance Boyles, please visit our floral store.