Paul Lewis Boynton
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
President of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College (SFASTC) from 1942 to 1958, Paul Lewis Boynton made vital contributions to the institution’s future. Born in Belton (Bell Co.), Boynton attended Sam Houston State Teachers College. He then served as principal of Lufkin High School and taught in Wichita Falls before attending George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee, where he earned MA and PhD degrees in Psychology. Boynton was chairman of Peabody College’s department of Psychology when he was named the second president of STASTC (now Stephen F. Austin State University). As male students withdrew to fight in World War II, Boynton worked to keep the college from closing by convincing the federal government to open a Women’s Army Corps School here in 1943. In letter campaigns, he kept in contact with students wherever they served. When war made some federal operations in the area obsolete, Boynton secured buildings and farm property, leading to the opening of a department of forestry here in 1945. Enrollment at SFASTC increased dramatically in the 1950s. Boynton first met this demand by securing temporary buildings. His master plan focused on upgrading the school’s faculty, implementing a strong system of student guidance and providing permanent educational structures. In 1958, while at work, boynton suffered a heart attack and died shortly afterwards in Memorial Hospital. Today, Paul Boynton is remembered for his ingenuity in keeping sfastc open during World War II and creating a foundation for the institution’s move to university status and success as one of Texas’ foremost centers for higher education.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Paul Lewis Boynton, a Texas-born psychologist trained at Peabody College, became president of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College in 1942 just as World War II drained its male students away. To keep the school alive he persuaded the federal government to open a Women's Army Corps training school on campus in 1943 and secured surplus buildings and land that launched a forestry department in 1945, then guided a surge of postwar enrollment until his sudden death in 1958.
Why it matters
Boynton's wartime ingenuity shows how America's colleges survived World War II and then expanded to meet the postwar demand for higher education that transformed the nation.
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Related people
- · Paul Lewis Boynton
Related events
- · World War II
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Women's Army Corps School
Nacogdoches, TX
When World War II drained young men — and students — from campuses across the country, the U.S. Army turned college classrooms into training grounds for its newest recruits: women. With enrollment at Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College fallen below 500, the Army opened Administration School No. 1 here in 1943 to teach members of the Women's Army Corps the clerical and administrative trades of a modern military. Housed in the dormitories and drilled in six-week courses, roughly 3,000 women passed through before the school closed in 1944, each graduating class thanking the town with a variety show at the high school.
Wisely Hall
Nacogdoches, TX
When Stephen F. Austin State University moved to the edge of Nacogdoches in 1924, student housing was scarce, and the Great Depression soon froze plans for expansion. President Alton Birdwell and business manager J. H. Wisely turned to the New Deal's Public Works Administration, and in 1935–36 the town's first PWA project rose: a men's dormitory that quickly became a favorite gathering spot. During World War II it housed a Women's Army Corps unit before returning to student use, and in 1948 it was renamed Wisely Hall in honor of Wisely.
Birdwell Field, Aikman Gym and the Women's Recreation Center
Nacogdoches, TX
When Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College was funded in 1921, the legislature paid for only one building—the Austin Building, or "Old Main." President Alton W. Birdwell, convinced the young college needed more, arranged its first athletic field in 1923, even before the campus moved to North Street. Over the following decades the college added Aikman Gymnasium, a 3,500-seat multipurpose hall given by philanthropist Frank Aikman, and a Women's Recreation Center built in 1935 with Public Works Administration help, which doubled as a WAAC post exchange during World War II. Memorial Stadium later replaced Birdwell Field, honoring the college's WWII dead.
Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College During World War II
Nacogdoches, TX
When the United States entered World War II after Pearl Harbor, the president of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College gathered students and faculty to meet the national emergency—and the campus emptied into the war. Enrollment fell by sixty percent, football was suspended, and a campus flag bore more than a thousand blue stars for those serving and twenty-four gold ones for those who died. In a notable distinction, the Army chose SFA in 1943 as the first college in the nation to host a Women's Army Corps training school. After the war, returning veterans on the G.I. Bill swelled the college and its recreation grounds were rededicated as Memorial Park and Memorial Stadium.