Hyer, Robert Stewart, 1860-1929.

Robert Stewart Hyer served as Southern Methodist University’s first president, from 1911 until 1920. Prior to his arrival in Dallas to direct the construction and opening of the new Methodist university, Hyer devoted himself to teaching and research as a science professor at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. He played a major role in how SMU was built, choosing the architectural style and geographic orientation of the university’s first building, Dallas Hall. It has been said that the real monument to Robert Hyer is indeed SMU itself.

Hyer was born October 18, 1860 in Oxford, Georgia. His father, William L. Hyer, was a locomotive engineer; his mother, Laura Stewart Hyer, was the daughter of a Methodist minister. The Civil War was the dominant event in American history during his early years, and despite being only four years old in 1864, the burning of Atlanta by the Union army that year was an event Hyer would remember for the rest of his life.

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