Boyd, David French, 1834-1899

David French Boyd (1834-1899) was an officer in the Confederate Army who for a time was a prisoner of war on a Union boat moored in Alexandria, La. After the war, Boyd was instrumental in the founding of Lousiana State University.

Boyd graduated from the University of Virginia in 1856, and later served in the Confederate Army. From 1865 to 1880 he served as President of the Louisiana State University. During 1883-1884 he also served as President of Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College at Auburn, resigning to return to Louisiana.

William T. Sherman was a Union Army General during the Civil War. Sherman was a colleague of the Louisiana educator, David French Boyd. Both taught at Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy at Alexandria, La, where Sherman served as superintendent (1859-1861). After the war, the seminary moved to Baton Rouge, La. Boyd served as a colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. During the Reconstruction, he helped to preserve the seminary and he served as its president (1865-1880, 1884-1886). The seminary was renamed Louisiana State University 1870.

David French Boyd joined the faculty of Louisiana State Seminary of Learning at Alexandria, Louisiana, in 1860 under the administration of William T. Sherman. After serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War,he was appointed superintendent, and later president, of the Seminary by Governor J. Madison Wells. Boyd resigned this position in 1880, returning to the University in 1884.

During the interim he held administrative positions at Locust Dale Academy and Alabama State College at Auburn. He was elected president of LSU in 1884, but resigned in 1886 when censured by the Board for moving the campus site to Baton Rouge. He retained his position as Professor of English at LSU until 1888 when he was appointed Superintendent of the Kentucky Military Institute. He again returned to LSU as a Professor of Philosophy and Civics in 1897 where he taught until his death.

Under his administration the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning underwent a transformation and merger to become Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. He is also credited with preserving the institution during the politically and financially difficult years of Reconstruction.