Run Billy Run 5K makes final run

There’s something so final and oftentimes sad about “the last” of anything.

Not so for the family of the late Judge William J. Boyle. As they set about organizing what will be “the last” Run Billy Run 5K fundraising road race, they say it is truly just the beginning of a new chapter. The race will take its final run at Ashley Reservoir in Holyoke on Sept. 27.

The Boyles want it to be a joyful celebration of their husband and father, the man who left behind a legacy of public service to his hometown of Springfield. It is a legacy that’s been enveloped by his end-of-life and very public fight with Lou Gehrig’s disease and that still simmers as a backdrop for the continuing efforts to shutter the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse and build a new court for Hampden County.

Having raised more than $100,000 over the past five years, the William J. Boyle Scholarship Fund has reached the point of being self-sustaining. There is enough money in the fund to ensure it will keep on giving to help Springfield Public Schools graduates for years to come.

Each year’s race has been a major undertaking, planned, organized and carried out with the help of the same cadre of friends and family who’ve been there since the start. The judge’s wife, Rose Boyle, says she never imagined the outpouring, not only for the first event in 2021 but for every race since.

“We had started it by saying five years is probably long enough to put on a race and ask people to come before (interest in) it dies out. So, here we are,” she said one recent afternoon while sitting on the patio of the family home on Shefford Street with two of her three children.

They recalled the successes of Run Billy Run over the years, 300-plus runners the first year and 200 to 300 in each of the following years. Even in inclement weather, people showed up both to help and to run or walk.

What the Boyles most remember is how the judge’s (and their family’s) closest friends have been steadfast in supporting the race, always there for whatever tasks were at hand.

“It’s where we see Bill’s true friends. They come and help, and they ask for nothing. It’s been six years and they’re still there,” Rose Boyle added.

In addition, she said, “We’ve been very fortunate to have great sponsors who have sustained the scholarship and (brought us to) a good place right now, where the scholarship will grow and be able to sustain itself.”

Son Martin J. Boyle is hopeful this passage of time will also see the public perception of his father’s legacy become more focused on who the man was beyond his illness and on the impact the scholarship fund can have on new generations of students who follow in the judge’s path to higher education and public service.

“We’re getting to the point where, while the sort of shock and awe of his diagnosis and the terrible decline he bravely and very publicly faced is still there, that part of his story has sort of faded as the more enduring elements of who he was shine through,” Martin Boyle shared. “He is remembered as someone who strived, valued education, worked hard, gave of himself back to his community, achieved prominence and success but never forgot where he came from.”

“And was a strong family man and loyal friend,” added his sister Margaret L. Boyle.

The scholarship began by making awards to students who were following the same educational trajectory the judge had taken: A graduate of Springfield Trade High School, he first attended Springfield Technical Community College and then went on to Western New England College to earn both his bachelor’s and law degrees. It then expanded to include all Springfield Public Schools graduates and, now with free community college, to those who plan to attend Western New England University.

Judge Boyle – Billy to his friends – died in 2019 at the age of 62. He had been 8 years old when his father died, leaving his mother to raise three sons on the salary she made working for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. Back then there wasn’t access to scholarships and other financial aid, meaning the Boyle boys worked hard to make their way through college.

In a 2018 interview, Judge Boyle credited his mother with inspiring him and his brothers to work hard and get an education in order to succeed in life. “She really drove home the idea of education, making sure we all did something with our lives,” he said. As it turned out, the sons became a doctor, priest and lawyer.

Law school had not been on his radar, but after working for a time in marketing for NCR, he decided to enter Western New England’s law school. It took him four years, including three summer terms, to complete the evening program for his juris doctorate. By day, he worked as a law clerk for the firm of Cooley Shrair.

Then-Mayor Richard E. Neal, on whose campaign Boyle had worked, hired the new law school grad to work as an associate city solicitor and District Court prosecutor. Later, when the Hampden District Attorney’s Office took on prosecutorial duties, Boyle moved to work for DA Matthew J. Ryan Jr. Later, he opened his own law firm with friend Michael Chernick and made a foray into politics, serving 10 years on the City Council, after which he was nominated to a District Court judgeship.

Outside the courtroom, his life was filled with many blessings. He and Rose married in 1987, and the house on Shefford Street that remains the family homestead almost four decades later is where they raised their three children – Kathryn, a nurse, who now lives in Illinois; Margaret, who is chief of staff and an associate vice president at Western New England; and Martin, a certified public accountant who lives in Longmeadow.

“Dad knew he wanted to help the next generation of Springfield leaders through education,” Martin Boyle remembered of how the scholarship was created. “That was really important for him, to recognize students in the public school system, the way he came up.”

To fund it, there was unanimity, Margaret Boyle added. “That’s easy, a road race,” was the committee’s plan. Thus came Run Billy Run, and the committee set out to create an event that her father would have most enjoyed in the place where he most loved to run – Ashley Reservoir.

“It’s got family, friends, a reception afterwards. That was his favorite type of race to run,” she recalled.

The judge had become an avid runner in his spare time. He completed the Boston Marathon eight times after the age of 50, and it was while running the annual Turkey Trot Thanksgiving Day race in 2016 that he collapsed and had to be carried off the course. The diagnosis of ALS followed.

As the disease – the same one which his predecessor as chief justice of the Springfield District Court, Judge Robert Kumor, fell victim to – took its revenge, Boyle retired in 2018 and died a year later. In an interview with The Republican before his death, he said his doctors described as “Powerball odds” the chances that two people occupying the same office would come down with the relatively rare, progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

To this day since his retirement, no one has occupied the office at the Springfield courthouse. Two governors and years of review and discussion later, there is still no definitive plan for a new courthouse; this despite the 52-year-old structure being classified as a “sick building,” with some of its offices moved off site.

“It’s very frustrating that Boston or the powers that be are not taking this whole situation seriously and putting it up front to do something about it,” Rose Boyle said, noting that she was among a legion of courthouse employees and family members who offered up their health records to help document the need for a new courthouse. “How long is it going to take. People are afraid to be in there.”

Added Margaret Boyle, “As dad would say, it’s the busiest court in the commonwealth. That’s still the fact. For the state to still not have done something about it is troubling.”

While none of the Boyle children have entered politics per se, Marty Boyle says he and Margaret are “both involved in the community. We both take public service seriously and as something to be valued, done for a genuine purpose rather than for personal gain.”

“We just do it in different ways,” added Margaret.

He accepted appointment to the Longmeadow Finance Committee, hoping to put his financial skills to use helping the town where he lives.

She was appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker three years ago to the Springfield Redevelopment Authority and more recently reappointed by Gov. Maura Healey. Just six months ago she became the commission’s first woman chair, sharing on the LinkedIn, “As a lifelong Springfield resident, I deeply appreciate the responsibility of this role and the impact it has on our community. I look forward to continuing the great work of the SRA to enhance the city for all residents.”

“Public service has always been important to me,” said Margaret Boyle, who spent more than a decade working for now Congressman Neal. “I definitely got the proud Springfield resident gene that my dad had so strongly within him. I realized there was more I could be doing.”

As they review the scholarship essays by today’s high school students, they say they are finding many of the traits that were personified in the judge’s life.

The essays, Marty Boyle said, present “a side of Springfield that maybe we’re jaded from seeing or we take for granted but is very refreshing and lovely to read.”

They point to the words of Jamin Dong, a 2025 graduate of John J. Duggan Academy who was awarded a Boyle scholarship and now attends Western New England:

“For me, Springfield, Massachusetts, is more than just a dot on the map; it is a community of various cultures, a place where history and diversity collide and new growing opportunities are rooted in ages past,” Dong wrote.

He closed his essay by writing, “Springfield gives me the challenge and the opportunity to grow as a Chinese American and still be connected to my roots. I hope to honor Springfield’s legacy and help shape its future as a diverse and inclusive community that can continue to thrive by sharing my culture, mentoring youth and providing opportunities for community growth and development.”

It is words like those, and not the hubbub of the road race, that would please the late judge, his family members said.

“He would be happy with the results,” Rose Boyle said. “He wouldn’t want the grandstanding of it being about him. That was not his style.”

Added Marty Boyle, “He’d be bashful about it, but very proud about what it will mean in making a genuine difference in the lives of children from his community.”

Cynthia G. Simison is retired executive editor emerita of The Republican. She may be reached by email to csimison@repub.com.