Oral History Interview with Karen Daugherty Boyd

This oral history is provided free by the Archives of the Interlochen Center for the Arts (ARTICA). It has been accepted for inclusion in Interlochen’s audio archive by an authorized administrator of Interlochen Center for the Arts. For more information, please contact archives@interlochen.org.

00:00:00     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Today is July second, 2025, and this is an oral history with Karen Dougherty Boyd, conducted by Elizabeth Flood on the campus of Interlochen Center for the Arts.

00:00:11     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
My name is Karen Dougherty Boyd. I was a camper in 1972, '73, and '74. I was on the Camp staff from 1976 to 2005, and then I returned in 2008. My husband and I now own a cabin on Duck Lake, just across from Interlochen. My husband knew that when we married, we would someday have to have a place up here. During COVID, we found a cabin. I was able to work remotely until I retired.

00:01:00     ELIZABETH FLOOD
So how did you learn about Interlochen the first time when you came here as a camper?

00:01:06     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
My mother first introduced me to summer camp in 1968. However, at the time, I didn't want to wear knickers and practice the piano in the woods. Four years later, after seeing the musical Brigadoon at the Academy, I decided Interlochen was my own Brigadoon.

00:01:36     ELIZABETH FLOOD
You're not the first person to bring up Brigadoon here, so could you tell me about what Brigadoon you saw here?

00:01:41     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
The musical Brigadoon was held in JVS, which is currently the library. JVS was a revamped gymnasium with bleachers and a stage. The performance was very basic compared to what is seen at Interlochen today, but it still captured my heart.

00:02:19     ELIZABETH FLOOD
So what was your first summer like when you came to Interlochen?

00:02:24     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
When I first arrived in 1972, I was a dance major. During the second week of camp, a boy named Daniel O'Connor broke my toe, so I couldn't study dance. My parents said, "We've paid for eight weeks of camp, can you find something else?" So I decided to try the harp. My parents realized I could have picked something smaller when they saw the size of the harp, and they had to buy a car that would fit the harp for my travels. They bought a station wagon that fall that could hold a full-size harp.

00:03:12     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Wow. That is love.

00:03:15     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
I think my parents considered my education their living legacy. The opportunities they gave me included my schooling and my experience at Interlochen. In 1972, the eight-week camp cost $800. My mother's parents' estates funded the camp, and they were the ones who introduced my mother to Interlochen in the '40s because my grandfather knew Joe Maddy.

00:04:01     ELIZABETH FLOOD
What did you hear about Joe Maddy?

00:04:03     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
I heard he was charismatic in a quiet way. He was convincing because he knew the right people who could support him. I never met Dr. Maddy, but I have his books.

00:04:34     ELIZABETH FLOOD
What is a memory that you have from your time at Interlochen? The question is, what's your favorite memory, but I kind of want to talk about Camp first, and then your experience on staff.

00:04:44     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
My mental image of Interlochen is sitting in Kresge, listening to the World Youth Symphony Orchestra (WYSO), feeling the breeze, and watching the boats go by. As a camper, and then as a staff member, that memory lingered.

00:05:29     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Could you tell me about what it was like to learn harp here?

00:05:33     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
They had a beginning harp class, which I was grateful for because after dance, I started the beginning harp class with Clementine White. The class was in a building right behind The Bowl. Clementine said to me, "I think you're ready to perform solo in the final harp recital". So I played The Foggy Dew.

00:06:39     ELIZABETH FLOOD
I edited the tape for Richard Cade. Were you classmates?

00:06:42     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
No. I think Richard was at the Academy. I was on a cruise in Alaska in 2006, and Park Stickney's parents were sitting at our table. Even though I was never a professional harpist, I found ways to be on stage with Interlochen artists.

00:07:27     ELIZABETH FLOOD
So could you tell me a little bit about when you were here on staff. What was that like. Coming back?

00:07:35     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
I was still eligible and able to come back as High School Girls. But I couldn't afford it. So I talked to Richard Feigel, who was the Director of Human Resources. He asked me, "can you type?" and I said "yes". He then offered me the position of Junior Girls secretary. In 1976 that was my first stint on the summer staff at Interlochen.

00:08:12     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Could you tell me a little bit about the social scene of being a camper here? What was it like outside of the musical element of being here?

00:08:28     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
I went to a girls school in Columbus, Ohio. Coming to a coed situation for the summer allowed me to really stretch my wings socially. I also discovered that there were boys. I was in cabin ten my first summer. We had some activities that would involve the Interlochen boy's side, and that's where I really tested my wings. I gained the confidence that I needed to behave properly with children my age. My cabin mates from 1972—some 53 years later, I'm still in touch with those people. The friendships that I forged as a camper, and then ultimately on staff, have made my life so rich. I have to credit Interlochen with introducing me to the globe.

00:10:19     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Wow. Could you tell me about some of those friendships? Some of the memorable people that you've met?

00:10:27     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
Carolyn Osborne stands out in my mind. She was a violinist from California. Teresa Dimond was a percussionist, and she was so skilled that as an intermediate, she could be in WYSO. Teresa and I have maintained ties. Another person that comes to mind is Nikolai Suare, who was a Romanian violinist. Along with two other Romanian students, their families had encouraged them to stay in the United States. They were all accepted at schools like Eastman and UofM. I received a phone call from the State Department, asking me if I was harboring three fugitives. I thought it was a joke. Eventually, I ran into one of the Romanian students, Yvonne Cranga, when I was working at Interlochen in 2004. My phone rang, and it was Nikolai calling from Florida. He asked me what college his daughter should go to. I last saw him in 2016 or 2017 when he lived in North Carolina. That's the way my life has been, and I'm grateful for Interlochen for introducing me to the globe.

00:13:43     ELIZABETH FLOOD
That's so gorgeous. It's just such a beautiful thing to hear how Interlochen weaves is such a really rich piece of fabric in everyone's tapestry? And how these threads are connecting.

00:13:57     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
Yes, it's a tapestry. I once spoke at an Interlochen service about using the largest box of crayons to color the tapestry of your life. I used that 120-box of crayons to create my life through the friendships I forged here at Interlochen.

00:14:28     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Could you tell me a little bit more about those services?

00:14:31     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
The Interlochen service was a generic gathering that emphasized quality over quantity. You were invited to sing in the church choir. It was non-ecumenical. The campers would attend when they were strongly encouraged. When I visited a few years ago, I asked about the Interlochen service, and they wanted to know if I was looking for the Jewish service or Catholic services. I've mentioned that I would love to volunteer to coordinate the return of the Interlochen service. I was honored to be able to speak one summer about my Interlochen experience.

00:16:04     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Was it always in Kresge to your memory?

00:16:06     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
Yes, the years that I was here, it was always in Kresge on Sunday morning. It started with the brass choir. Anyone could play in the brass choir. They would rehearse in The Bowl and then come into Kresge. Hearing the reverberation of the brass in Kresge is magical. Several of my Camp friends, Steve Daniels, Alvey, and Tom Stein, from the summer of 1974, played in the brass choir.

00:17:22     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Thank you for telling me about that. Could you tell me a little bit about some of what you did here after you worked with the Junior campers as a typist?

00:17:30     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
I returned in 1977 and 1978 as the High School Girls secretary. We used typewriters back then. I would have to type up all of the camper's badges. I also reviewed their applications to determine which cabin they would be placed in. I resided in one of the cabins, so I was mindful of who I was placing in my cabin. I would spend my time in Thor Johnson's lounge typing up the Camp records. I did that for two summers. In 1980, I returned as the High School Girls rec director. That was a real departure from being a secretary. I would plan all the trips to the Sand Dunes, Point Betsie, and canoe trips. Gwen Frostic's was always a very popular trip. When she was alive, she always met with the campers in her private apartment. As we were leaving, she would have a box of her books in the bus to be handed out to the campers. If you fast forward to the summer of 2003, my daughter became a camper. She lived in Intermediate Girls. I returned in 2004 and 2005, as did my daughter, Elizabeth. In 2008, when I returned, I was on sabbatical from my teaching career. I was then the rec director for the summer camp. I oversaw the activities of Junior, Intermediate, and High School campers. The population of campers was closer to 3,000 in 2008. That was an exciting summer. During COVID in 2020, the cabin came available. I announced to my husband after the fact that the cabin was available because I had put a bid on it two years earlier. By the end of Labor Day weekend in 2020, we were the proud owners of Stone's Throw.

00:21:54     ELIZABETH FLOOD
I spoke to two sisters last week who were at Camp a little bit around the same time? I was asking what it was like to be here with their sibling. And so I'm wondering what it's like to have been working in the same place as your daughter.

00:22:07     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
That's a good question. When Elizabeth was under the weather, Jennifer Wesling, who was the head of Camp Life, could call me up and say, "Elizabeth needs some attention". I could then decide whether to take her to the emergency room. When she was on staff, she could come into Hemingway, where I lived, and spend the night. In 2008, she was the Intermediate Girls Rec Director, so she answered to her mother. She asked me what she should call me. I told her, "you're going to call me Karen, because you're on the staff, just like everyone else". She was respectful of that, and she called me Karen.

00:23:20     ELIZABETH FLOOD
And then my other direction of question is about speaking to other people on Duck Lake, spreading the word of Interlochen. What is that like?

00:23:30     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
It's almost a calling for me. Whenever I meet someone with an artistic talent, I ask them if they have heard of Interlochen Center for the Arts. My neighbor, Helen Morgan, was once a dorm mother during The Academy. She comes to concerts regularly and supports Interlochen. Another fun story is that my car battery died, and my car was facing the wrong way to be jumped. A couple drove up who just lived around the corner. The man introduced himself as Paul Anderson. In 1972, Paul Anderson was in the Mikado. Everyone had a crush on him, and I had a picture of him. I found the picture in my archives. There are other people in my neighborhood who aren't sure what Interlochen is. Gary Holt, who was also a camper in 1972 and 1973, lives in the same neighborhood. In my "Scherzo," there was a picture of Gary Holt when he played in a High School musical, and we all wrote, "we love Gary Holt". A woman we were sitting with in Stone was on the health care staff as a nurse. She said that growing up, they lived on Silver Lake and had never been to Interlochen. I told her she was considered an alumna. Anyone that experiences Interlochen, regardless of whether they were a camper, Academy student, staff, or faculty, we embrace them all. I'm looking forward to the Centennial in a few years.

00:27:20     ELIZABETH FLOOD
What Interlochen project or performance that you were either a part of or bore witness to over time, stands out in your memory of Interlochen?

00:27:33     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
The harp recital in 1972, playing The Foggy Dew, with my parents beaming. I think they knew that the $800 they had invested in my summer had paid off because I continued to study the harp from then on. Of course, Les Preludes is always special. I love that the student gets to conduct the theme and almost always breaks the baton and throws it into the orchestra. I can remember Coke dates at the Melody Freeze. My first Coke date was with John Furth from New Jersey.

00:29:01    ELIZABETH FLOOD
Do you have a favorite spot on campus. A favorite place?

00:29:10     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
Driving in the main entrance and seeing the signs tells me that I'm home. I don't know if I can say there is one particular spot on campus. There were telephone booths in the High School Girls Division. I can remember having phone calls to my new boyfriend, ultimately my husband, in 1978. Interlochen has been able to evolve with all the changes and competition that there now is in our world. It's been around for nearly 100 years. I've seen a lot of old rickety buildings be turned into new ones. I met Dave Maddy, the son of Joe Maddy, and we became close friends. Many people have come through these woods. You must come back because the spirit is still here. The buildings may look different, but when you see these students and hear them perform, they're special.

00:33:00     ELIZABETH FLOOD
What advice would you give to current and future students at Interlochen?

00:33:06     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
Live in the moment while you're here at Interlochen. Make lifelong friends. Be eternally grateful that Interlochen continues to evolve to create memories for those to come.

00:33:42     ELIZABETH FLOOD
The original question is, what do you hope for Interlochen in the next hundred years? But a little more specifically, I'm curious about what traditions you hope are carried into the next hundred years, and what are new things that you would like to see happening in the next hundred years here at Interlochen?

00:34:04     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
I think the Interlochen Presents program features artists, typically musicians, who draw crowds. I don't know that people find out what Interlochen truly is. It's important for Interlochen to continue these lifelong friendships and to continue to reach out to alumni because they're the ones that know Interlochen the best. I'm thrilled that Interlochen forged a relationship with China. I'm always keen to hear at the Opening Ceremony where the countries are represented. I miss the map of the United States with pins that represented where people were from. People would say, "I'll meet you at the board" or "I'll meet you at the Wishing Well". There was also a tradition called tooling, where you would call out someone's name from a distance and then pretend like nothing happened when they looked. The big traditions, like the Interlochen service, I know we don't have Challenges anymore. The online auditions are helping the process of keeping Interlochen current. The film department is relatively new, and Musical Theatre is now its separate department. People from the past may have a hard time with the changes and lament that "this isn't Camp anymore".

00:38:40     ELIZABETH FLOOD
I'm gathering information about Challenges. So I would love to hear what Challenges were like when you were here, or how you experienced them, how they were structured, but then also how you felt during them?

00:38:54     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
Challenges brings back many memories. In 1974, I was in High School Girls and was eligible for WYSO or the High School Concert Orchestra. Through my audition, they placed me three chairs above last chair in the harps. At that time, I think there might have been 16 harpists that summer. Two would automatically go on to WYSO, and the rest would be in the Concert Orchestra. I was fine because I wasn't sitting last chair. I gracefully declined to Challenge each week because I knew the music was far above my ability. Challenges never pained me. I was offered a scholarship to attend The Academy after that first year. I received the phone call after my first day of tenth grade at Columbus School for Girls. I told them I had to decline because I had already started school in Ohio and my parents had paid my tuition. I realized later on that I could never compete on the level of Rhea Royce, who sat first chair in WYSO that summer. I was motivated to keep up with the harp and learn the Debussy dances, because that's what she played. The traditions, we must always keep Les Preludes, and the Interlochen Theme is here to stay. I looked at my WYSO concert program and saw that it says to remain seated, not refrain from applause, which is an evolution that's taking place. I think Challenges were vital at the time because it created motivation and camaraderie. I would probably say the Interlochen Bowl is my favorite space because it's been here the longest.

00:43:10     ELIZABETH FLOOD
I didn't know that you could decline a Challenge, that Challenges were optional.

00:43:15     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
I don't know that Challenges were optional, but if you're sitting last chair, you have that choice. I think the rest of the harpists that summer were grateful that I didn't try.

00:43:32     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Do you have any other memories you'd like to share or have out in the world about your time here, or your relation to Interlochen?

00:43:46     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
I'll never let it go, and maybe that's a vice or a virtue. It's what has grounded me. I was introduced to classical music and gained confidence. Those are gifts; they're intangible and priceless. The people here choose to be here, with the hopes of becoming famous, or with just the passion for their art. When democracy and negotiation seem to fail, art bridges society and cultures and beliefs.

00:46:02     ELIZABETH FLOOD
That's a beautiful answer to such a broad question.

00:46:06     KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
Yes.

00:46:08     ELIZABETH FLOOD
Thank you so very much for speaking with me today and sharing your memories and your relationship to Interlochen with me. It's been a real pleasure.

00:46:16    KAREN DAUGHERTY BOYD
Thank you, Elizabeth.