Frank Boyden

Frank Learoyd Boyden (1879–1972) was headmaster of Deerfield Academy from 1902 to 1968.

Early life

He was born in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Personal life

He attended Amherst College, class of 1902.

He married Helen Sears Childs on June 29, 1907. She was a 1904 graduate of Smith College, which awarded her a Doctorate of Humane Letters in 1934.

Boyden enjoyed driving through the Deerfield Valley in one of his several horse-drawn buggies.

He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention from Massachusetts in 1960.

His only living relatives, a grandson and three adult great-grandchildren currently reside in Northern California.

Career

Boyden kept his desk in the hallway of the Main Building so as to keep the pulse of the school. As headmaster, he became known for taking in students who had been expelled from other schools. Boyden was replaced after his retirement in 1968 by David M. Pynchon.

Legacy

A chair, the Frank L. Boyden Professor of Political Economy, exists at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Boyden Hall and Boyden Gym, on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, are named in his honor.

Boyden was profiled by John McPhee (Deerfield, Class of 1949) in The New Yorker in an article later expanded into a book, The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden, of Deerfield.

The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds some of his papers.

External links

• Frank Learoyd Boyden Papers, Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
• "Massachusetts Yankee", Time Magazine profile of Frank Boyden, May 30, 1949