William R. Boyd
In 1909, the newly created State Board of Education named William R. Boyd to chair its Finance Committee. Boyd held the position for more than four decades until his death in Cedar Rapids in 1950.
Boyd worked to benefit all three state institutions, but he made notable contributions to the University of Iowa, from where he graduated in 1889.
After World War I, Boyd pressed for increased appropriations to his alma mater, including winning support for the medical school. His friendship with then-UI President Walter Jessup helped improve relations with the board.
Boyd was instrumental in raising funds to expand the hospital west of the Iowa River. He assisted in securing a substantial grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, which paid about 20 percent of the cost for a new hospital and laboratory building in 1928.
He also recruited outside faculty, who were teacher-research scientists in clinical fields, and that helped to further the advancement of medical education. Under Boyd’s watch, the Finance Committee had extensive powers. It visited the three state institutions on a regular basis and made recommendations and decisions subject to board approval.
The Finance Committee also imposed a more uniform system of accounting on the schools, examined their proposed budgets, studied their comparative costs and set salaries in addition to other responsibilities.
Boyd’s contributions to the State Board of Education and to making UI a major public university earned a tribute from Alexander Flexner, an officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, who called Boyd “the highest type of American citizen; absolutely devoted to the welfare of his state and particularly to the upbuilding of the State University.”
Boyd was born in Tipton and after college taught and served as principal for two years at Mechanicsville. He then served as editor of the Tipton Observer newspaper until 1893 before becoming the associated editor and later editor of the Cedar Rapids Republican.