Boyle was Executive Director of Research for Bell Labs from 1975 until his retirement in 1979. In retirement, he split his time between Halifax and Wallace, Nova Scotia where he helped launch an art gallery with his wife Betty, a landscape artist. He married Betty in 1947, and has four children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2010. Boyle died in Wallace from kidney disease.