Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor and longtime Associated Press editor Sam Boyle died Sunday, Feb. 3 after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 59 years old.

Boyle grew up in a family of successful journalists. His father, Samuel Boyle, was managing editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin. His uncle, Robert Boyle, ran the Pottstown Mercury, and his brother, Bill Boyle—who died of cancer in September 2007—was senior managing editor for New York’s Daily News.

“They grew up with ink in their blood,” said Suzanne O’Brien, Boyle’s wife of 34 years. “Their father brought home 14 papers a day, so that’s all they ever wanted to do.”

Boyle joined the Associated Press soon after graduating college. Over his more than 30 years with the wire service, he worked as night editor in Newark, N.J. and Philadelphia, and in the business, sports, and news sections in New York, before becoming the New York bureau chief. He held that position for 20 years before accepting an adjunct spot at Columbia in 2005.

It was largely due to the hectic and unpredictable nature of journalism that Boyle did not begin his teaching career earlier.

“With the job he had, you couldn’t tell when there was going to be a gunman on the Long Island Railroad, a bombing at the World Trade Center... But teaching at Columbia really is what he talked about for a long, long, long time,” O’Brien said.

Though Boyle taught at the School of Journalism for only two years, he was one of the institution’s most beloved professors. Since his death, O’Brien’s e-mail in-box has been flooded with messages from Boyle’s friends, colleagues, and students alike.

“Throughout the semester it was really helpful to me ... to have a teacher that cared when it seems everyone else is telling you how bad you are,” one student wrote.

“I wrote my first story in Sam’s class. He was so encouraging and supportive—a model teacher and mentor,” said former student Irene Liu in an e-mail to O’Brien.

Boyle was “simply a wonderful teacher,” colleague David Klatell wrote. “He has won the respect and hearts of colleagues and most often his grateful students.”

But Boyle gained just as much inspiration from his time at Columbia as his students gained from him.

“Up to the last day of his life he really felt like somebody, because he was a Columbia professor and he had great students,” O’Brien said. “I’m so grateful that he had that, because who knew those were the last couple years he had?”

In addition to journalism and teaching, Boyle loved scuba diving and animals. “He yelled at people who tied their dogs up on the sidewalk, which I think was a good thing, because God forbid Sam got mad at you,” O’Brien said, laughing. “And one of the hardest things about lung cancer was finding out he couldn’t go scuba diving anymore.”

In a moment of humor, O’Brien noted that Boyle “lived long enough to have a good laugh about the fact that Rudy Giuliani had to fight Mike Huckabee for third place in Florida. They did not have a friendly relationship.”

Nicholas Lemann, dean of the School of Journalism, wrote in an e-mail the day after Boyle’s death, “There may be some consolation in reflecting on what a well-lived life Sam’s was,” and O’Brien agreed.

O’Brien has asked well-wishers to, instead of sending flowers, give blood or donate to a charity of their choice.

“Sam was dependent on transfusions for several months, and it really drove home to me the desperate need for people to give blood,” she said.

A public memorial service will be held Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. in the World Room of the Journalism building.

maggie.astor@columbiaspectator.com