 But by 1952 she left academia and returned to Washington with a position at the Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratories.In January 1956, she moved to IBM as a computer programmer; when IBM received a NASA contract, she moved to Vanguard Computing Center in Washington, D.C.

Boyd moved from Washington to New York City in 1957.In 1960, after marrying Reverend G. Mansfield Collins, Boyd moved to Los Angeles.