Robert Hamilton Boyle Jr. (August 21, 1928 – May 19, 2017) was an environmental activist, conservationist, book author, journalist and former senior writer for Sports Illustrated.

As senior writer, Boyle took full advantage of Sports Illustrated to attract public attention to various conservation and environmental concerns, including the substantial fish kills resulting from the thermal discharge water of power plants, and the effects of acid rain.

He was one of the first journalists to report on the methyl mercury, DDT and PCB contamination of saltwater fish when, in October 1970, he wrote Poison Roams Our Coastal Seas.

[3][4] During his boyhood in the 1940s, he attended boarding school in Highland Falls, and spent his free time fishing and developing what would become his lifelong affinity with the Hudson River.

[7] It wasn't long after the Tule Lake incident that Boyle started taking on much bigger opponents, including various state and federal governments and their respective resource agencies.

He was determined to clean-up the highly polluted Hudson River with its toxic waste and substantial fish kills that had garnered national attention and became the butt of jokes by the late Johnny Carson, former host of The Tonight Show.

He founded the Hudson River Fishermen's Association (HRFA) in March 1966 after meeting with a group of concerned citizens at the Crotonville American Legion Hall.

[12]: 35–36  The Con Ed action "became the basis of environmental law in the United States by establishing the right of citizens to sue the government to protect natural resources".

[13] "By nature a fisherman, by profession a writer and editor, by soul a poet, Robert Boyle of Croton, N. Y., has summoned all of his talents to the producing of a magnificent book about that 'Great River of the Mountains,' the Hudson".

[15][16][17] He also exposed sizeable fish kills in the Hudson that was caused by the Indian Point nuclear power plant dumping their thermal discharge water into the river.

"In 1983, Boyle simultaneously published two books: Acid Rain, which highlighted the threat to wildlife and ultimately human health attributed to acid rain "caused by the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the combustion of fossil fuels"; and At the Top of Their Game, a collection of essays about people driven to achieve great things, including profiles of tennis official Jimmy Van Alen, novelist Zane Grey, dog trainer Robert Abady, handballer Jimmy Jacobs, and fly fisherman Charles E.