Philip L. Boyd

Philip Linnaes Boyd (October 8, 1900 – September 9, 1989) was the first mayor of Palm Springs, California, a regent of the University of California and the namesake of the Deep Canyon Desert Research Center.

Personal life Philip Boyd was born October 8, 1900, in Richmond, Indiana, the son of lawyer and corporate executive Linnaes Cox Boyd and Mary Thomas Spencer, daughter of prominent businessman William F. Spencer. In 1953 Boyd, who was on the board of trustees for the Palm Springs Art Museum, leased property for a nature reserve now part of the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. Boyd encouraged faculty from the newly opened University of California, Riverside to use his nature reserve for research only to realize his public nature reserve was not a fitting setting for academic research.

In 1958, Boyd donated another parcel of land and funding to purchase a total of in Deep Canyon to open what is now the research center. The University of California has since acquired other contiguous property to expand the research area to its current size. The acquired lands were named after Boyd in 1961. Clark Kerr (then the President of the University) and Herman Spieth (the chancellor of the Riverside campus) commented that the reservation would allow ongoing research to continue in ecosystems threatened by urban sprawl. Boyd and his wife donated funds in 1966 to support the construction of UCR's carillon and bell tower. Boyd and his wife also donated a set of silver Towle salt and pepper shakers to the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Political life Boyd was instrumental in incorporating Palm Springs, serving as the town's first mayor from 1938 to 1942. from 1945 to 1949. While an assemblyman, Boyd voted to establish University of California, Riverside. As a member of California's State Public Works Boards Boyd participated in the logistical process of establishing the UCR campus.