Toy earned his B.A. at Denison University in 1951. He graduated with a master's degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Michigan and served as a pro bono counselor and therapist. Toy underwent bureaucratic retirement in 2008 from the University of Michigan as the diversity coordinator in the Office of Institutional Equity. He was awarded the Alumni Citation, Denison's highest alumni honor, in June 2001, and was featured as an early LGBT alumnus in an article on the college's LGBTQ history in 2013.