(Radio Iowa) – Former University of Iowa president Willard “Sandy” Boyd has died at the age of 95. Boyd was a St. Paul, Minnesota native who practiced law for two years in Minneapolis before joining the U-I law faculty in 1954. He moved up the university ladder — becoming the Iowa City school’s 15th president in 1969. He left to become president of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in 1981 — returned to the U-I as a law professor in 1996 and served as interim president in 2002-03 before formally retiring 2015.

Boyd’s 12-year presidency saw a large increase in enrollment and major changes in the campus footprint that included the building of Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and success in getting the Board of Regents approval for a 500-thousand-dollar upgrade of the University Hospitals building.

Willard “Sandy” Boyd

Boyd is survived by his wife, Susan Kuehn Boyd; their three children, Elizabeth “Betsy” Boyd of Iowa City, Willard Lee “Bill” Boyd III of Des Moines, and Thomas Boyd of St. Paul; and seven grandchildren.