David French Boyd

Book excerpt: David Boyd's biography is the story of one man's dedicated struggle to protect and preserve Louisiana's fledgling state university from the cumulative effects of war, Reconstruction, political hostility, and parochial greed. Boyd fought hard to promote his vision of higher education among a largely antagonistic or apathetic citizenry. He died, bitter and disillusioned, in 1899, without realizing his dream. But his life was not wasted. Clearly those who governed the university in more prosperous days owned much of their success to the devotion and self-sacrifice of this heroic figure.