CMU’S 7th president Bill Boyd dies at 97
Educator also was once Alma College dean
William B. Boyd, who served seven years as Central Michigan University’s seventh president and who served for seven years as Alma College’s Dean of Faculty, has died.
He died Dec. 16 at his home in Racine, Wisc., following a short illness, according to media reports.
“I am inspired to follow in the footsteps of CMU’S seventh president, William ‘ Bill’ Boyd, who passed away this week at the age of 97,” CMU’S current president,
Robert Davies, said in a Saturday Tweet. “Sending thoughts and prayers to his family.”
Davies presided over CMU from 1968-75, arriving from a two-year stint as Chancellor of Student Affairs at University of California-berkley, and leaving to take the job as president of the University of Oregon.
His tenure was regarded as both progressive and peaceful, according to his CMU bio. In addition to instituting an affirmative action program in hiring, he presided over the development of African American studies courses.
It was while Boyd was at CMU that the university’s athletics program was elevated to the NCAA’S Division 1A and that Special Olympicsmichigan located to Mt. Pleasant.
Boyd’s tenure at Alma College, as a member of its history faculty and dean of the faculty, ran from 195865.
He was born in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., in 1923. After serving in the United States Navy from 1943- 46, he attended Presbyterian University in Clinton, S.C., from which he received his B. A. in 1946. He received an M. A. from Emory University in 1947 and finally his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1954.
In 1953, while he was finishing his doctorate, he started work as a member of Michigan State University’s history faculty.
In 1980, he left the University of Oregon for the Johnson Foundation in Racine.
There, he met Karen Johnson. The two were married in 1982; she died in 2016.