Boyd, George T., 1909-2004

Boyd was a Mormon educator and adminsitrator.

George T. Boyd (1909-2004) was a Mormon seminary and institute instructor in Arizona and California.

George Tilton Boyd grew up in the small farming community of St. David, Arizona. His father died in a wiring accident some months before he was born. When George was three years old his mother remarried her late husband's nephew, John Allred. He attended small country schools until his graduation in 1927, then attended the University of Arizona for one year, during which he was active in athletics and completed a civilian military training program as a member of the U.S. Army's 10th Cavalry unit (which still used horses, but was the last to do so). Following that year, George served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Spanish-American (Mexican) Mission, covering the entire territory from the West Coast to the Gulf area, from 1929 to 1932. After his mission, George returned to the University of Arizona and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in education in 1937.

Around June 1938, he took a job as education advisor in the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was around this time he married Maurine Eyring, whom he had known from St. David High School. George remained in his position for about a year and a half, then returned to the University, this time to complete a Master's degree in School Administration in 1940. He then applied to teach in the Church Department of Education, with Elder John A. Widtsoe, a friend of the family, serving as one of his references. His application was delayed until the following summer, during which time he taught a remedial 6th grade class at Franklin Junior High, and served on his stake's Sunday School Board in Mesa (where he was also ordained to the office of High Priest). It was also during the Boyds' sojourn in Mesa that George became acquainted with Sterling McMurrin, to whom George gave primary credit for his gain of the position in the Church Educational System, as well as for his first interest in philosophy and the deeper questions of religion (and began studying the same at the University of California).

At that point, George began teaching seminary. He spent about three years in that position, the last year in the capacity of principal, before obtaining a contract to teach in the budding Institute program (then called a 'Deseret Club') at Arizona State University. After about two years in that post, George was given a contract to move to Berkeley to establish an Institute program at the University of California; by this time, George and Maurine had four small children. He taught there for four years, in the mean time helping to establish Institute programs at Stanford University and San Jose State. Feeling that it would be a better environment for his growing children, George moved his family to Salt Lake City and began teaching Institute at the University of Utah, where he remained until 1955. In 1955, George was transferred back to southern California, where he taught for a few more years, and was then appointed Institute Director, in which capacity he served until about 1972. The family, now including six children, moved to Fountain Valley, and George spent two years at the Long Beach State Institute before retiring to Provo. He died June 19, 2004, survived by his beloved wife of 66 years.