boyd.html

[Boyd Professors] [Course] [Foureaux Society]

Boyd Professors

Boyd Professors, Harry H. Roberts, Bob O'Connell, Meredith Blackwell, Jesse Walker, and the late Bill Pactrick photographed at a fall 2001 party given by the School of the Coast and Environment, to kick off a fund-raising drive and to introduce Roberts as a Boyd Professor. --Photograph Greg Olivier

Boyd Professors have breakfast with Chancellor O'Keefe and other top LSU administrators in April 2005. --Photograph Meredith Blackwell

Thomas Duckett Boyd (1854-1932)
(Courtesy of LSU University Archives)

David French Boyd (1834-1899)
(Courtesy of LSU University Archives)

The Boyd brothers, David French (1834-1899) and Thomas Duckett (1854-1932), were early faculty members and presidents of Louisiana State University and its predecessor, the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana, located in the Alexandria area.

The Boyd Professorship, established by the LSU Board of Supervisors on 1 June 1953 and named in honor of David and Thomas Boyd, is the highest professorial rank awarded at LSU. Faculty members who are designated as Boyd Professors have attained both national and international distinction for outstanding teaching, research, or other creative achievement. A brief chronology of the Boyd brothers at LSU excerpted from the report of the University Commission on the History of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College is given below. The Commission was established in 1989 to preserve the history of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

Did you know....
William T. Sherman (you can search for him at <http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/>), who was the first administrator of the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana, had David F. Boyd released from a Union prison camp? Boyd was captured and imprisoned a second time but was not released the second time. (More information about David and Thomas at LSU is given below.)

Who are Boyd Professors? Boyd professors are physicists, composers, chemists, sedimentologists, mathematicians, historians, biologists, writers, and humanists. See Academic Affairs, LSU, for the a current list of active Boyd Professors on the Baton Rouge campus.

The World Around You, a course for advanced undergraduates is offered by Boyd Professors every spring semester.

The Foureaux Society
In association with the LSU Alumni Association, the Boyd Professors are happy to honor students with a 4.0 grade point average for a minimum of 15 credit hours in each semester of their freshman year. The society was founded by W. H. Patrick; M. Blackwell is the current contact. Each spring a reception is given at which the students each receive a cash award. The students are designated members of the Foureaux Society. Guests at the 2005 Foureaux Society reception are shown in the photograph below.

The Boyd Chronology at LSU

1859 Board elects its initial faculty of five professors, appoints William T. Sherman as the seminary's superintendent and professor of engineering and David French Boyd as professor of ancient languages.
1865 October 2, Seminary reopens after the War Between the States and Col. David Boyd is named superintendent.
1868 Thomas Duckett Boyd came to LSU as a cadet; he was associated with the University as professor, commandant of cadets, and president until 1927.
1880 July 1, David Boyd accused of mismanagement, forced out of presidency of LSU. Gov. Wiltz reappoints a new faculty and Col. William Preston Johnson is appointed.
1884 Board rehires David Boyd as President and Professor of Civil Engineering; American Institute of Electrical Engineers founded
1886 Jan. 13, Mechanical lab burns down, new lab constructed; US Army barracks and 200 acres are donated to LSU; December, Boyd resigns a second time, Thomas Boyd (his brother) takes the temporary appointment of President for seven months
1886 September, David Boyd conducts repairs on new campus without reimbursement from the Board of Supervisors and resigns the presidency to teach. Thomas Duckett Boyd is named interim and withdraws name so that David may be rehired.
1888 The Boyd Brothers depart: Thomas to the State Normal School (Natchitoches); David resigns.
1896 Thomas Boyd returns as president.
1897 Col. David Boyd returns to faculty.
1899 Col. David Boyd dies.
1906 Col. Thomas Boyd begins establishment of colleges and university concept. The first women students, seventeen of them enroll, among them are Annie Boyd, Col. Boyd's daughter.
1919 Col. Thomas Boyd elected president of Assoc. of State Universities.
1921 Col. Thomas Boyd elected president of Assoc. of Land Grant Colleges.
1923 November 1, Col. Thomas Boyd offers resignation at age 70, but the death of Link prevents Boyd from leaving.
1924 Two buildings completed in this year were named for the brothers. Thomas Boyd Hall houses the Chancellor's office, Undergraduate Admissions, Records and Registration, and the Treasurer's office; David Boyd Hall, that honors the second president of the University, houses the Graduate School.
1926 June, Col. Thomas Boyd offers resignation.
1932 Col. Thomas Boyd dies and is buried in Baton Rouge at Magnolia Cemetery on Nineteenth Street.

Boyd professors share secrets of their roads to academic success

    It was a Boyd Professor—William Pryor—who wrote the first textbook on free radicals. It was a Boyd Professor—Charles Royster—who caught the attention of historians worldwide with his subtle analyses of historical figures. It was a Boyd Professor—Robert F. O'Connell—who was a member of the team that deduced the immense size of the magnetic field of the Greenwich dwarf star—300 million times larger than the earth's magnetic field.
    A Boyd Professorship is the highest and most prestigious academic rank LSU can confer on a professor. Since the Boyd Professorships were initiated in1953, there have been only 60 individuals from all LSU campuses who have achieved that rank. Twenty-six are still active, 13 are on the Baton Rouge campus. "A Boyd Professorship is not something you get at the beginning of your career. It comes at the culmination of your career," said Marilyn Zimny, interim vice president for academic affairs in the LSU System and chair of the Boyd Review Committee.
    The Boyd Professorship was named for David French Boyd and Thomas Duckett Boyd, early faculty members and presidents of LSU and its predecessor, the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy. The first Boyd Professors were political science professor Eric Vogelin, chemist Philip West and historian T. Harry Williams. To become a Boyd Professor, an individual has to have "attained national or international distinction for outstanding teaching, research or other creative achievement," according to the rules of procedure for selecting a Boyd. Then there is the selection process itself. The process begins with a nomination by an academic dean or director. It is first reviewed by the chancellor, the vice chancellor for academic affairs and the vice chancellor for research and/or the dean of the graduate school.
    If the nomination passes the scrutiny of all these, it is forwarded to the Boyd Professorship Review Committee, which is made up of two Boyd Emeriti members and three Boyd faculty members from throughout the LSU System. These are appointed by the system president. The sixth member of the committee and the committee chair is the chief academic officer of the system staff, in this case, Zimny. The review committee then sends letters to as many as 125 experts in the nominee's field asking for an evaluation of his or her professional reputation. These experts are editors of or contributors to refereed journals. They are members of panels, boards and professional societies. Many of them are from other countries.
    When roughly two-thirds of the responses are in, the committee reviews them and decides on the course of action to take, Zimny said. The committee could decide not to designate the nominee as a Boyd Professor, to defer a decision for a certain number of years or to approve. If the nominee is approved, a memorandum is sent to the system president who must also approve, then to the Board of Supervisors for final review and approval. The formal announcement and presentation are made at the next Board of Supervisors meeting. "The selection process is rigorous," said Daniel Fogel, LSU's provost and executive vice chancellor. "The entire process may take more than a year and is fully confidential. The nominee is never to know he or she has been nominated." ....
    Boyd Professors are active in teaching as well as research. Last semester they presented a course called "The World Around Us." It was a one-hour credit, 13-week lecture series designed to broaden the education of upperclassmen. Each week a different Boyd Professor lectured on a topic from his or her chosen field. Present plans call for the course to be offered every spring. Also in the area of teaching, Boyd Professor William Patrick, director of LSU's Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute, initiated the Foureaux Society in 1997. The Foureaux Society recognizes sophomores who maintained a 4.0 grade-point average throughout their freshman year. This past April, 125 students were inducted into the society at a dinner in the Lod Cook Alumni Center.
    Robert O'Connell, whom Zimny calls the informal chair of the Boyds, convenes them monthly for lunch at the Faculty Club. They are a sociable and garrulous group, O'Connell says, and luncheon topics range from campus issues and events to research and other interests. "They are very serious about their work but very sociable, so these meetings tend to be fun," he said. "I think if you look at the Boyd Professors you will find a good reflection of where some of the strengths of the university lie," O'Connell said.

-Ronald Brown (1999)

[Boyd Professors] [Course] [Foureaux Society]

Meredith Blackwell
3 February 2006