Edited release
12/14/22
Former UI president Willard “Sandy” Boyd died at age 95 Tuesday in Iowa City.
Boyd had over six decades of service to the University of Iowa, serving twice as president and as a law professor.
The Iowa Now website reports that Boyd joined the UI faculty in 1954; was the UI’s 15th president from 1969 to 1981, was president of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago from 1981 to 1996, returned as a UI law professor in 1996, and served as interim president in 2002–03. He formally retired from the university in 2015, though he continued to share his wisdom with any faculty member or administrator who sought him out.
Over the course of his tenure, undergraduate enrollment increased from 8,400 to 25,100, and he oversaw building projects that nearly doubled the size of campus. Among the more prominent buildings that opened or were planned during Boyd’s tenure included the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences; Lindquist Center; Carver-Hawkeye Arena; Bowen Science Building; Dental Science Building; and the College of Nursing. He also spearheaded the modernization in the 1970s of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, leading to the construction of what is now called Boyd Tower and the Roy J Carver Pavillion.
Boyd is survived by his wife, Susan Kuehn Boyd; their three children, Elizabeth “Betsy” Boyd of Iowa City, Willard Lee “Bill” Boyd III of Des Moines, and Thomas Boyd of St. Paul; and seven grandchildren.