Charles P. “Chip” Boyce III, a former Maryland National Bank executive who later was the founder and president of Network Media Partners Inc., died of cancer Dec. 9 at Gilchrist Center in Towson. The resident of Baltimore County’s Woodbrook neighborhood was 72.
“He was an excellent banker who had the highest integrity. I had nothing but the highest regard for Chip,” said Ed Barker, who had been the credit officer who reviewed transactions in the old Maryland National Bank’s International Division, and worked directly with Mr. Boyce, who considered him a mentor.
Carrie Hartin, who joined Network Media Partners in 1996, said: “Chip was a massive influence in my life and I learned so much from him.
“The business had a publishing arm and a media sales component, and he brought a high level and creative aspect to it. He knew how to build a business that delivered,” said Ms. Hartin, who became chief operating officer and president of Network Media Partners.
Charles Prevost Boyce III, son of C. Prevost Boyce Jr., a stockbroker for Stein Brothers Boyce and later Alex. Brown & Sons, and Dorothy Abbott Boyce, a community volunteer, was born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park.
After graduating in 1968 from Gilman School, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1973 from Gettysburg College, where he was a member and president of Sigma Chi fraternity.
In 1973, he began his banking career at the old Maryland National Bank, eventually rising to become managing director of the bank’s commercial and international banking department.
“Chip ran our Asian market and I’d go out there periodically and these trips would take three weeks because I was visiting Tokyo, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Wellington, Jakarta and Singapore, and Chip was one fine hardworking fellow, and optimistic,” recalled Mr. Barker, who retired in 2010 from BB&T Bank.
“He had high professional standards and had a great rapport with clients because there were cultural gaps,” he said.
From 1981 to 1984, Mr. Boyce and his wife, the former Diana Bantz whom he married in 1973, lived in Singapore, and during those years, he developed a lifelong affection for the Pacific Basin, family members said.
“Chip could separate working hard and having fun,” Mr. Barker said.
He recalled when they were on a business trip on an extremely hot and humid day in Bangkok.
“We were riding in an old Cadillac taxi and the driver said it had once been used by President Kennedy. It must have been 90 degrees and the cab broke down. I have a picture of Chip and the driver pushing the old Cadillac through the streets,” he said, with a laugh.
Also, while living there, Mr. Boyce enjoyed tennis, skiing, scuba diving, and fishing in the South China Sea.
“If you look back in his heritage, his family came from a long line of Baltimoreans who had been in the banking and the brokerage business,” said an uncle, Frederick L. “Fred” Meserve Jr., who lives in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
“When he came back from Singapore where he had been working for Maryland National, everyone kind of expected him to follow his heritage and be a stockbroker,” Mr. Meserve said. “He told me, ‘I’m not sure I want to do that,’ so he struck off on his own. He was truly entrepreneurial and had lots of courage.
“The second point I’d like to make was his expectations were very high and he helped family members reach those expectations. He was just terrific and a very charming fellow.”
Choosing to go in another direction, in 1992 Mr. Boyce established and served as president of Network Media Partners Inc., a sales management organization that specialized in media sales, event planning, and management of digital and print design and marketing services for trade and professional associations.
The business grew to 50 employees.
“Chip was very fair and he supported his people. He wanted them to learn and grow in the company,” said Ms. Hartin, who is president of sales solutions at MCI USA. “He was good-natured and good-humored and found ways to have fun.”
Because of his vision for the company, he was able to acquire a stable of long-term clients.
“Because he built a very positive, structured, service-oriented business, he was trusted and that meant a lot to people,” Ms. Hartin said. “He had client relationships that went back 15 or 20 years. He became their trusted partner.”
He sold Network Media Partners Inc. in 2017 to MCI USA and retired.
An avid traveler, Mr. Boyce enjoyed fly fishing in rivers and streams of the Scottish Highlands, Virginia and West Virginia with his family.
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He shared a loved of gardening with his wife and mowing his own grass of his Charlesmead Road home on his riding mower. He also was a fan of Labrador retrievers.
In 2002, Mr. Boyce was the successful recipient of a kidney transplant, which gave him the gift of two decades of life, family members said.
He was a member of the Elkridge Club, the Bachelors Cotillon and the Greenbrier Sporting Club at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
Plans for a celebration-of-life gathering to be held in March are incomplete.
In addition to his wife of 49 years, Mr. Boyce is survived by a son, Charles Alexander “Alex” Boyce of Denver; a daughter, Katherine Boyce Herrick of Palo Alto, California; a brother, Benjamin P. Boyce of Middletown, Delaware; two sisters, Dorothy Boyce York of Rodgers Forge and Susan Boyce Cole of Marco Island, Florida; and 14 nieces and nephews.
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