Boyden, Roland William 1863-1931

Roland William Boyden (1863-1931), lawyer and statesman. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard College in 1885, and an L.L.B. from Harvard Law School in 1888. He maintained numerous Harvard University connections over the years, including chairman of the Board of Directors of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers from 1924-1930.

In November of 1917, President Herbert Hoover chose Boyden to head the legal enforcement division of the United States Food Administration. After the armistice of World War I, Boyden took charge of the work of the American Relief Administration. In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to represent the United States unofficially at the meetings of the Reparations Commission, and was later reappointed by President Warren Harding. Boyden entered especially controversial territory when in January of 1923, he suggested that the German default in reparation payments had essentially been guaranteed by the provisions of the Versailles Treaty. He proposed to the commission that the reparations agreement be redrawn and the U.S. Senate consequently demanded his recall. He was not officially recalled, but nevertheless resigned the position a few months later and returned to the practice of law in Boston with the law firm of Ropes, Gray, Boyden & Perkins.

Between 1927 and his death in 1931, he served on a number of international economic and political posts, including being a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. He was married in 1895 to Kate Foster Whitney Boyden and they had no children.

Roland William Boyden (1863-1931), lawyer and statesman, was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, the second son of seven children of William Cowper Boyden and Amy Lydia Hoag Boyden. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard College in 1885, and an L.L.B. from Harvard Law School in 1888. He maintained numerous Harvard University connections over the years, including chairman of the Board of Directors of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers from 1924-1930.

In November of 1917, President Herbert Hoover chose Boyden to head the legal enforcement division of the United States Food Administration. After the armistice of World War I, Boyden took charge of the work of the American Relief Administration. In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to represent the United States unofficially at the meetings of the Reparation Commission, and was later reappointed by President Warren Harding. Boyden entered especially controversial territory when in January of 1923, he suggested that the German default in reparation payments had essentially been guaranteed by the provisions of the Versailles Treaty. He proposed to the commission that the reparation agreement be redrawn and the U.S. Senate consequently demanded his recall. He was not officially recalled, but nevertheless resigned the position a few months later and returned to the practice of law in Boston with the law firm of Ropes, Gray, Boyden & Perkins.

Between 1927 and his death in 1931, he served on a number of international economic and political posts, including being a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. He was married in 1895 to Kate Foster Whitney Boyden and they had no children.