Willard L. Boyd

Willard Lee Boyd (March 29, 1927 – December 13, 2022) was an American legal scholar, academic administrator and president of the University of Iowa and Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. He was latterly part of the faculty of the University of Iowa College of Law as the Rawlings/Miller Professor of Law and President Emeritus.

Early years and career Boyd was born on March 29, 1927. He grew up on Commonwealth Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended Murray High School, St. Paul, Minnesota, graduating in 1944. He served as a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman from 1945 to 1947. He went on to the University of Minnesota, where he earned his B.S.L. in 1949, and received his LL.B. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1951. He was admitted to the Minnesota Bar in 1951. Boyd then attended the University of Michigan Law School, where he received an LL.M. in 1952. He worked as an associate attorney at Minneapolis law firm Dorsey & Whitney from 1952 to 1954.

Academia After a brief time in private practice, Boyd entered academia, teaching law at The University of Iowa College of Law from 1954 to 1964; during this time he earned his S.J.D. from Michigan in 1962. He became a member of the Iowa Bar in 1958. His career as an academic administrator began in 1964, when he served as Associate Dean of the College of Law before becoming Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties for The University of Iowa, a position he held from 1964 to 1968.

During Boyd's presidency, the athletic department hired three of the most successful coaches in school history: Lute Olson (men's basketball, 1974–83), Dan Gable (wrestling, 1976–97) and Hayden Fry (football, 1979–98). In 1970, Boyd hired former Michigan football coach Bump Elliott to replace Forest Evashevski as athletic director. Elliott was responsible for the hires of Olson, Gable and Fry, as well as C. Vivian Stringer as women's basketball coach and Dr. Tom Davis as Olson's replacement in 1983 following Boyd's resignation.

After ending his tenure as a university president, Boyd served as the President of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago from 1981 to 1996. During this time, he was one of the first recipients of the Charles Frankel Prize (now the National Humanities Medal) in 1989, honoring his efforts to bring history, literature, philosophy and other humanities disciplines to general audiences.