Mourners honor fallen Marine, Palatine High School graduate

Hundreds of mourners stood in line Saturday at Arlington Trackside to offer condolences to the parents of fallen Marine Cpl. Christopher "C. J." Boyd.

The former Palatine resident and 2006 Palatine High School graduate died Aug. 19 during his first combat duty, when a roadside bomb killed him in southwestern Afghanistan.

After a private funeral on Friday, his parents, Ken and Patty Boyd, held a celebration of their son's life at Trackside in Arlington Heights, where they knew they could accommodate a lot of people.

"We've had such an outpouring of support from the community, from the school and from the Marines," Ken Boyd said. "We knew that he touched a lot of lives so positively and that they would want to come by."

Many of those gathered included Boyd's former classmates, coaches and teachers from Palatine, where he was remembered for his hard work and quiet leadership among his teammates.

Brett Chidester of Palatine played quarterback during Boyd's senior year, when Boyd stepped up to replace an injured teammate and played center on the offensive line.

"I played behind him," Chidester said. "What a fighter. He played tough, I always knew I was protected."

Likewise, Boyd's classmates Joe Gervasi and Bryant Bosler remembered playing on teams from Little League and junior high school through high school wrestling and football along side him.

"He was a very, very classy player," Bosler said. "He wasn't the biggest player on the field, but he had the biggest heart."

Gervasi remembered that while Boyd loved athletics and played a different sport each season, he was just as passionate about the military.

"That's all he wanted to do," Gervasi said. "He used to read books about the military and he talked about it all the time. No one was surprised when he enlisted."

One of Boyd's wrestling coaches, Mark Hibner, remembered that Boyd had been on a freshman wrestling team that had gone undefeated, which was rare feat in the highly competitive Mid Suburban League.

"He was a big part of that team," Hibner said. "We knew we had something special."

His varsity wrestling coach, Jerry O'Brien, pointed to Boyd's work ethic and perseverance, as he trained diligently in the weight room each day and during practice.

"He wasn't a natural athlete, but he worked hard for everything," O'Brien said, "particularly in the weight room. He was just a rock solid kid and one that others looked up to."

During the memorial, Boyd's former lacrosse coach, Heath McFall, and his football coach, Tyler Donnelly, presented his parents with their son's home and away jerseys from both sports.

Donnelly also told them of the school's plans to retire their son's number, 54, during a ceremony at the last home game. Afterward, he said, the jersey would be displayed in the school's weight room, where Boyd's legacy of hard work and dedication to excellence would be showcased.