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James E. Boyd (scientist)

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For other people named James E. Boyd (disambiguation)|James E. Boyd, see James E. Boyd (disambiguation).
James E. Boyd
Grainy older portrait of a man wearing a suit and a tie. He is facing left, and has brown curly hair.
Born(1906-07-18)July 18, 1906
Tignall, Georgia
DiedFebruary 18, 1998(1998-02-18) (aged 91)
Carrollton, Georgia
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Georgia,

Duke University,

Yale University
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Georgia,

Yale University,
University of West Georgia,
Georgia Institute of Technology,
United States Navy,
Georgia Tech Research Institute,

Scientific Atlanta
Notable studentsGlen P. Robinson

James Emory "Jim" Boyd (July 18, 1906 – February 18, 1998)[1] was an American physicist, mathematician, and academic administrator. He was director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1957 to 1961, president of West Georgia College from 1961 to 1971, and acting president of the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1971 to 1972.[2][3]

A graduate of the University of Georgia and Duke University, Boyd began in academia as a professor of physics at West Georgia College. He then became a professor at Georgia Tech and a prominent researcher at the Engineering Experiment Station, now known as the Georgia Tech Research Institute. He later went on to lead all three of those institutions. At the Engineering Experiment Station, Boyd helped spur the organization's mainstay, federally funded electronics research and development. Along with fellow Georgia Tech researchers Gerald Rosselot and Glen P. Robinson, Boyd was influential in the founding of Scientific Atlanta, where he was a board member for 25 years.[4][5][6] As director of the Engineering Experiment Station, Boyd focused on the recruitment of talented engineers and an increase in physical space available to the organization, including the establishment of nuclear research at Georgia Tech with a radioisotopes laboratory and the construction of the Frank H. Neely Research Reactor.

As the president of West Georgia College (now the University of West Georgia), Boyd increased faculty, degrees, programs, and both undergraduate and graduate enrollment on the campus. Boyd racially integrated the campus in 1963, unprompted by a court order, and oversaw immense construction projects that dramatically expanded the campus to support the increased (and future) enrollment. Hired away to serve as Vice Provost for Academic Development at Georgia Tech, he was almost immediately assigned as interim president of that institution. During his tenure from 1971 to 1972, Boyd resolved difficult issues in the attempted takeover of the Engineering Experiment Station by previous Georgia Tech president Arthur G. Hansen and the poor performance of (and corresponding alumni calls to remove) head football coach Bud Carson.

Early career

Education

Boyd was born to Emory and Rosa (née Wright) Boyd on July 18, 1906 in Tignall, Georgia, a small town near the eastern border of the state of Georgia.[2][7] He had two brothers, John and Ellis, and a sister, Sophia.[7][8] In 1927, he received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from the University of Georgia. In 1928, he received a Master of Arts in mathematics from Duke University.[2] From 1928 to 1930, Boyd was an instructor of physics at the University of Georgia. He entered graduate school at Yale University in 1930, and was a graduate assistant there from 1930–1931 and a Loomis Fellow from 1931–1933.[2] He received his PhD in physics from Yale in 1933,[2] with a thesis entitled Scattering of X-Rays by Cold-Worked and by Annealed Beryllium.[9][10] In his thesis, Boyd described the effects of reflecting radiation through samples of powdered, cold-worked and annealed beryllium with differing particle sizes. The experiment showed that beryllium crystals are "rather imperfect", that annealing causes "no appreciable change" in beryllium's atomic structure, and that the mass absorption coefficient of beryllium found in the experiment is reasonably close to the theoretical value calculated using Compton's empirical formula.[10]

Boyd was appointed as head of the Mathematics and Science Department at West Georgia College in 1933.[2] In 1935, he joined the faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of physics.[2] Boyd married Elizabeth Reynolds Cobb, daughter of Betty Reynolds Cobb and Hiram Felix Cobb, on June 2, 1934.[11][12] James and Elizabeth went on to have two children: a son, James Fortson Boyd, and a daughter, Betty Cobb Boyd.[2] With World War II under way, Boyd joined the United States Navy in 1942, serving as a lieutenant and later lieutenant commander in the Bureau of Ordnance, performing research on radar. From 1945 to 1946, he was a commander in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations doing radar and electronics work.[2]

Researcher and entrepreneur

A brick building with many windows, with a brick street in front of it. There is a large tree on the right side of the image, in front of the building. There are two cars parked next to the building, one in the center and one on the left edge of the image. The building's entrance has the word "Research" above it.
The main building of the Engineering Experiment Station, pictured in 1951

In 1946, Boyd returned to Georgia Tech's physics department and its Engineering Experiment Station, where he worked as Assistant Project Director under Frank Lawrence (and, after Lawrence's departure, as Project Director) on an Army Air Corps-sponsored project studying microwave propagation. As part of the project, he conducted long-range line-of-sight experiments between Georgia Tech and Mount Oglethorpe in North Georgia. In 1947, Boyd co-authored a ground-breaking study entitled Propagation Studies of Electomagnetic Waves,[13][14] which resulted in a series of related research contracts, including a large one obtained from the Navy Bureau of Ordinance on radar-directed fire control.[13][15] Boyd attained the rank of professor of physics in 1948.[2] Around 1950, and under the authority of his rank of Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Boyd created a U.S. Navy Research Reserve Unit at Georgia Tech that included officers both from Georgia Tech and the Atlanta metropolitan area. In the 1950s, Boyd was promoted to captain and ran this unit until his departure from Georgia Tech.[2]

Dr. Boyd is really considered the founder of Scientific Atlanta.

— Glen P. Robinson, [13]

In 1950, Boyd was named the first head of the newly created Physics Division of the Engineering Experiment Station (now known as the Georgia Tech Research Institute). Boyd recruited his former student Glen P. Robinson to the station.[2] In late 1951, Robinson, station director Gerald Rosselot and Boyd helped start Scientific Associates (now Scientific Atlanta, part of Cisco) with $700 in seed money to produce and market antenna products that were developed at the station, as the station did not think Georgia Tech should be involved in the manufacturing business.[2][16] When forced by Georgia Tech vice president Cherry Emerson to choose between the two organizations, Boyd resigned from his post at Scientific Atlanta and remained with Georgia Tech, while choosing to retain his position on Scientific Atlanta's Board of Directors.[2]

Administrator

Experiment Station director

The black and white photograph is of a large room that contains a lot of electronic equipment. The lower half of the image contains a cylindrical white container that is a nuclear reactor. There is a walkway at the top of the reactor, which leads back to a control room where two men are sitting.
The Neely Research Reactor, which was built in part due to Boyd's influence.

Boyd was promoted to Assistant Director of Research at the Engineering Experiment Station in 1954. He served as director of the station from July 1, 1957, until 1961.[2] While at Georgia Tech, Boyd wrote an influential article about the role of research centers at institutes of technology,[17] which argued that research should be integrated with education, and correspondingly involved undergraduates in his research.[2] Boyd was also known for his recruitment of faculty capable of both teaching and performing notable research; one such example is his placement of physicist Earl W. McDaniel against the wishes of Joseph Howey, director of the School of Physics.[2][18]

Under Boyd's purview, the Engineering Experiment Station was awarded many electronics-related contracts, to the extent that an Electronics Division was created in 1959; it focused on radar and communications.[13] In 1955, Georgia Tech president Blake R. Van Leer appointed Boyd to Georgia Tech's Nuclear Science Committee.[2][19] The committee recommended the creation of a Radioisotopes Laboratory Facility and the construction of a large research reactor. The former was built and dedicated on January 7, 1959, and could receive, store, and process radioactive materials.[2] The Frank H. Neely Research Reactor was completed in 1963 and was operational until 1996, when it was (in retrospect, permanently) defueled because of safety concerns related to the nearby 1996 Summer Olympics events.[2] Boyd was succeeded in the directorship by Robert E. Stiemke, who was previously the director of Georgia Tech's School of Civil Engineering.[20]

West Georgia College president

Boyd became the President of West Georgia College in 1961 after William H. Row died of a heart attack.[21][22] Boyd is most known for his peaceful racial integration of the campus (without waiting for a court order) in 1963 by inviting a young black woman, Lillian Williams, to attend the college; she eventually earned two degrees in education and the college's highest honor, the Founder’s Award, in 1985.[21][22][23] In May 1964, Boyd invited Robert F. Kennedy to the dedication of the campus chapel as the Kennedy Chapel, as U.S. President John F. Kennedy's death had occurred in November 1963. During his visit, Robert Kennedy promoted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was then under debate in the United States Senate.[21][24]

Boyd dramatically expanded the college during his tenure in both headcount and academic diversity. In sheer numbers, there were 1,089 students upon his arrival in 1961 and 5,503 students on his departure in 1971.[23][25] In 1959, there were two degrees and five programs available; in 1969-70 there were seven degrees and 45 programs. There were 94 graduate students in 1961 and 741 in 1969, because of the first master's programs being offered in 1967.[22][23] In 1969 alone, 80 new faculty members were hired, a number larger than the total number of faculty members a decade prior.[23] Several new buildings were constructed, including nine dormitories and five academic buildings. Policy changes occurred as well: in 1966, the curfew for junior and senior women was abolished, and fraternities and sororities were allowed on campus.[23] In 1970, Boyd was named the University System of Georgia's first vice chancellor for academic development, effective once his successor (Emory graduate Ward Pafford) was appointed in 1971.[2]

Georgia Tech president

In a little under a month after Boyd had assumed the vice chancellorship, then-Georgia Tech president Arthur G. Hansen resigned. Chancellor George L. Simpson appointed Boyd as Acting President of the Georgia Institute of Technology, a post he held from May 1971 to March 1972.[2][26] As president, Boyd resolved two long-standing issues: the attempted takeover of the Georgia Tech Research Institute by departing president Hansen, and intense alumni pressure to fire football coach Bud Carson.[26][27]

Engineering Experiment Station

Boyd's selection as interim president by the University System of Georgia's chancellor was influenced by his previous experience as an academic administrator and director of the Engineering Experiment Station. The chancellor hoped this combination would smooth over a brewing controversy regarding the relationship between the Engineering Experiment Station and Georgia Tech.[26][27] The station had sizable and growing support from the state of Georgia and its Industrial Development Council, which developed products and methods and provided technical assistance for Georgia industry.[28] However, due in part to efforts made by Boyd and previous station director Gerald Rosselot, the station increasingly relied on electronics research funding from the federal government. In 1971, funding to both Georgia Tech's academic units and the Experiment Station began to suffer due to a combination of a sharp decline in state funds and cuts to federal science, research, and education funding after the end of the Space Race funding boom.[27] Similar institutions, such as the Battelle Memorial Institute, Stanford Research Institute, and the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute had weathered this storm by becoming exceedingly good at obtaining research contracts.[28]

Then-president Arthur G. Hansen's "bold and controversial" solution to both entities' problems was to completely integrate the station into Georgia Tech's academic units.[29] On paper, this would dramatically increase Georgia Tech's stated research funding (as all of it would be performed through the academic units), and it would increase options and financial aid for graduate students. Another, less stated, reason was that Georgia Tech would gain access to the contract organization's (then known as the Georgia Tech Research Institute, now known as the Georgia Tech Research Corporation) reserve fund, which was said to be over $1 million ($Error when using {{Inflation}}: |end_year=2,024 (parameter 4) is greater than the latest available year (2,023) in index "US". million today).[29][30] Thomas E. Stelson, Dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, was named to "reorganize" the station. Publicly, Stelson's task was simply to recommend a plan for reorganization, but the administration clearly intended for a closely integrated Georgia Tech and Engineering Experiment Station.[29] Maurice W. Long, who was director of the station at the time, viewed the move as a violation of the EES's charter as legislatively established by the Georgia General Assembly in 1919, and asserted that Georgia Tech did not have the authority to merge the two institutions.[26][29] EES employees and business executives involved with the station appealed to the Georgia Board of Regents and to Governor and future United States President Jimmy Carter (himself a Georgia Tech alumnus), and the controversy was covered in both The Technique and the Atlanta Constitution.[26]

This was the climate into which Boyd entered as interim institute president after Hansen had announced on April 27, 1971, that he would be departing Georgia Tech to become president of Purdue University on July 1, 1971.[26] Boyd stopped the plan for absolute absorption of the station, but did allow plans for closer control and more aggressive contract solicitation to proceed.[26][27] Among these measures were increased resource-sharing, including increased sharing of physical assets and research staff. The latter was evidenced by the increase in joint faculty appointments between the EES and Georgia Tech. The move paid off, and the fiscal year 1970-1971 saw EES win new contracts and grants, totaling a record $5.2 million ($Error when using {{Inflation}}: |end_year=2,024 (parameter 4) is greater than the latest available year (2,023) in index "US". million today).[27][30]

Athletic Association

Boyd also had to deal with intense public pressure to fire the then Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football coach, Bud Carson. Georgia Tech alumni, accustomed to winning seasons under football legends John Heisman (career record 185–70–17), William A. Alexander (134–95–15) and Bobby Dodd (165–64–8), made repeated calls for Carson's firing based on a large list of infractions (such as "mistreating and humiliating students" and "unsportsmanlike conduct"), the largest of which was his 27–27 record. The last straw was his 6–6 season record in 1971, which included both a loss to Georgia Tech's longtime rival, the Georgia Bulldogs, and to the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the 1971 Peach Bowl.[2][31] As institute president, Boyd chaired the Board of Directors of the Georgia Tech Athletic Association, which had been suffering both in win percentage and in finances.[32]

Traditional sources of Athletic Association income, primarily ticket sales, had declined as a result of both the Yellow Jackets' declining record and the relatively recent establishment of professional football in Atlanta, namely the Atlanta Falcons. Bobby Dodd, then athletic director, had also warned for years that Georgia Tech's rising academic standards and its limited curriculum would affect the athletic program.[33] At a meeting on January 8, 1972, the Athletic Association board, led by Boyd, ignored a 42-page list of "charges" drafted by an alumnus, but nevertheless voted to not renew Carson's contract, making him the first Georgia Tech coach to be fired. The board also voted to not accept Bobby Dodd's resignation, which had been offered at the meeting. Carson went on to have a successful career, particularly with the Pittsburgh Steelers.[2][34] On January 21, 1972, Boyd announced that Bill Fulcher had been selected as the new football head coach.[34] This would not change the Georgia Tech Athletic Association's fortunes, however; after Boyd's departure, the on-field and financial problems remained. Fulcher had a 12–10–1 record at Georgia Tech before quitting after the 1973 season after his own controversy over the benching of famed quarterback Eddie McAshan.[35]

Further information: [[:Coaching in Dodd's shadow]]

Retirement

Boyd retired in March 1972 after his tenure as Georgia Tech's acting president, succeeded in the position by Joseph M. Pettit.[13][36] Upon retirement, he was named an honorary member of Georgia Tech's ANAK Society.[37] In 1997, the Georgia Board of Regents approved the naming and dedication of the math and physics building at the University of West Georgia as the "James E. Boyd Building".[23][38] A scholarship was also created in his honor for a graduate of Bremen High School attending the University of West Georgia.[39] Boyd died on February 18, 1998 at his home in Carrollton, Georgia.[1][13][40]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Individual Record: James BOYD". The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Stevenson, Jim (2005-01-27). "James E. Boyd" (PDF). Deceased Georgia Tech Faculty Members. Georgia Tech Library. Retrieved 2010-03-25. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  3. ^ "History Makers". Georgia Tech Research Institute. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  4. ^ Stevenson, Jim (2005-01-27). "Gerald A. Rosselot" (PDF). Deceased Georgia Tech Faculty Members. Georgia Tech Library. Retrieved 2010-03-25. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  5. ^ "Tech Mourns Loss of Interim President Boyd". Tech Topics. Georgia Tech Alumni Association. Summer 1998. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  6. ^ "High Technology Enterprises". Conway Data. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  7. ^ a b "Emory F. and Rosa W. Boyd Scholarship" (PDF). 2011-2012 General Scholarship Information. University of West Georgia. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  8. ^ "Obituaries for October 6, 1997". Savannah NOW. Savannah Morning News. 1997-10-06. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  9. ^ Boyd, James Emory (1933). Scattering of X-Rays by Cold-Worked and by Annealed Beryllium (PhD thesis). Yale University. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
  10. ^ a b Boyd, James E (1934). "Scattering of X-Rays by Cold-Worked and by Annealed Beryllium". Physical Review. 45 (11). American Physical Society: 832–834. Bibcode:1934PhRv...45..832B. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.45.832. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ "James E. BOYD". Cobb and Cobbs. ancestry.com. Retrieved 2011-02-23. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  12. ^ "Mrs. Cobb, First Ga. Woman Admitted to Bar, Dies at 71". Atlanta Journal. Stanford University. 1956-05-27. p. 10. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
  13. ^ a b c d e f "History Makers: Dr. James E. Boyd". Georgia Tech Research Institute. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  14. ^ Boyd, James (1947). Propagation Studies of Electromagnetic Waves (Report). Georgia Tech Research Institute. {{cite report}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ McMath, p.260
  16. ^ "Researchers form Scientific-Atlanta". Georgia Tech Research Institute. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  17. ^ Boyd, James E. (1957). "Research Center in an Institute of Technology". IRE Transactions on Engineering Management. EM-4 (3). Institute of Radio Engineers: 99–100. doi:10.1109/IRET-EM.1957.5007421.
  18. ^ Stevenson, Jim (2005-11-18). "Earl W. McDaniel" (PDF). Deceased Georgia Tech Faculty Members. Georgia Tech Library. Retrieved 2010-03-26. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  19. ^ "Nuclear Committee Appointed" (PDF). The Research Engineer. Georgia Tech Research Institute. April 1955. p. 18. Retrieved 2011-03-07. {{cite news}}: External link in |work= (help)
  20. ^ Wallace, Robert (1969). Dress Her in WHITE and GOLD: A biography of Georgia Tech. The Georgia Tech Foundation, Inc. p. 247.
  21. ^ a b c House, Myron Wade (2006-05-01). "University of West Georgia". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-03-25. {{cite web}}: no-break space character in |first= at position 6 (help)
  22. ^ a b c "A Century of Success: the Senior College Years (1957-1996)". University of West Georgia. 2006. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  23. ^ a b c d e f Vinson, Doug (January 2007). "If these walls could talk". University of West Georgia. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  24. ^ Flanders, E. Lorene (Spring 2007). "From Rural Roots to Global Reach: Celebrating a Century of Success at the University of West Georgia". Georgia History in Pictures. 91 (1). Georgia Historical Quarterly: 70–82. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ "West Georgia Is Saluted By Publication". Rome News-Tribune. 1962-02-15. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g McMath, p.400
  27. ^ a b c d e "EES Defends its Independence". Georgia Tech Research Institute. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
  28. ^ a b McMath, p.398
  29. ^ a b c d McMath, p.399
  30. ^ a b 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  31. ^ Cromartie, Bill (1991) [1977]. Clean Old-fashioned Hate: Georgia Vs. Georgia Tech. Strode Publishers. pp. 374–378. ISBN 0-932520-64-2.
  32. ^ McMath, p.401
  33. ^ McMath, p.402
  34. ^ a b McMath, p.403
  35. ^ Lapchick, Richard (2007-02-05). "Georgia Tech's McAshan helped pave the way". ESPN Black History Month. ESPN. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
  36. ^ McMath, p.409
  37. ^ "Membership: Faculty & Honorary". ANAK Society. 2001-05-30. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  38. ^ "MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA" (PDF). University System of Georgia. 1997-07-09. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  39. ^ "James Emory Boyd Scholarship". EDU In Review. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  40. ^ "Class Notes, Grad Notes, and Obituaries". Georgia Magazine. University of Georgia. March 1999. Retrieved 2010-04-07.

Works cited

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