Rocky Boyd

I first became acquainted with Rocky Boyd on a couple of message boards on the old Delphi forum. There have been a couple of new message boards since then. This was way back before the Facebook days. Now with the Facebook groups feature, many of the old message boards are going the way of the dinosaur. I haven't tried to log into Delphi for years so I'm not even sure if they are still around or not.

Rocky was a fixture on these early boards. He always seemed to have a beeline on the most obscure information and he was willing to help out anyone he could. He mentioned his fascination with trooper Peter Thompson and that he was always on the lookout for any mention of Thompson, no matter how minuscule. This caught my attention as I had recently started collecting information on the 7th Cavalry troopers who are buried in South Dakota (there are quite a few).

When I started accumulating this information, Rocky was an invaluable resource. I would pepper him with questions and he would always have the answers. The guy knew his history. Not only 7th Cavalry history but Black Hills history in general.

In 2005, the Little Big Horn Associates held their annual conference in Rapid City, South Dakota. I attended and met for the first time some of my buddies who would go on to form our group, Montana Mayhem. Part of this conference was a field trip to Fort Meade. When my buddy, Michael Olson, and I got to the fort we noticed a guy with long hair running around. We met him in a stairwell and his stick-on name tag said "Rocky." We stopped him and asked if he was Rocky from the Delphi boards. The rest, as they say, is history. We bumped into him again later at the conference seminars and had a chance to visit. What a super nice guy.

He helped me immensely with his incomparable knowledge and friendship. Sadly, Rocky passed away May 1, 2010. He will be greatly missed.

Rocky Boyd at LBHA conference, July 2005