Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Boyd, Board Member, 1982-2002
Dr. Thomas Andrew Boyd (1942-2019)

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TAGS: Thomas Boyd, PMSS Board of Trustees, Dr. Thomas Andrew Boyd, Tom Boyd, WWII, Wabash College, Peace Corps, International Institute of Social Studies, Cambridge University, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Habitat for Humanity International, Berea College, social equality, sustainable living, Kentucky Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, White House Clinics, Kentucky River Foothills Community Action Agency, firefighter, Habitat for Humanity, New Liberty Homeless Shelter, wood sculptures, philanthropy

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THOMAS BOYD Board

Dr. Thomas (“Tom”) Andrew Boyd was a lifelong scholar, advocate, and a professor in the Department of Sociology at Berea College for 29 years. He served as a representative of Berea College on the Pine Mountain Settlement School’s Board of Trustees from 1982 until 2002.

THOMAS BOYD: His Studies and Work Overseas

After Thomas Boyd’s father returned to the U.S. from a tour of duty with the Navy during World War II, he moved the family from state to state looking for better work. As a result, Boyd attended high schools in Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois, constantly re-adjusting to new social and academic environments as a teenager.

After high school graduation, Boyd attended Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, majoring in psychology and minoring in economics and English. While there, he was influenced by a speech about seeing the world through the Peace Corps. After finishing at Wabash in c. 1964, he trained in New Mexico, then made his way to Columbia, South America, to serve with the Peace Corps, teaching sports programs to disadvantaged children.

He then earned a master’s degree in social sciences at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands, and his doctoral degree at Cambridge University. 

He first taught at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, followed by various positions at other institutions around the world, including those in England, Zambia, The Hague in the Netherlands, and the People’s Republic of China. He also worked with Habitat for Humanity International in Peru and completed a Fulbright fellowship in India.

He was published widely and received awards for his excellence in teaching and his community service.

THOMAS BOYD: His Work in Kentucky

In 1976 Boyd returned to the U.S. to help care for his parents, whose health was failing. When they moved into a retirement home, he decided to try serving in Appalachia in the way he did in developing countries abroad. By 1977, he was working as an assistant professor at Berea College, and ended up living in Berea, Kentucky, for 42 years.

In the ensuing years, Boyd served as professor in the Sociology Department at Berea College and later as chairman of the department. From 1977 until retirement in 2006, he impressed upon hundreds of young people the importance of social equality and sustainable living to the betterment of their world.

Meanwhile, Boyd was elected to succeed Ms. Marian Kingman (1900-1999) on the Pine Mountain Settlement School’s Board of Trustees, serving as Berea College’s representative from c. 1982 until 2002. The 1985 minutes of a Pine Mountain Association of Alumni and Friends meeting indicates that he was also a member of the PMSS Advisory Council at that time.

He also co-founded and was a board member of the Kentucky Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and the White House Clinics which consist of nonprofit federally qualified healthcare centers in several Kentucky locations.

In addition, Thomas Boyd was busy with a number of other commitments, such as serving as director of Kentucky River Foothills Community Action Agency, volunteer firefighter, a supporter of Habitat for Humanity, and co-creator of the New Liberty Homeless Shelter in Richmond, Kentucky.

After Boyd retired from Berea College he devoted his time to carving wood sculptures, a skill he learned while working with his father at a woodcraft camp during his Wabash College days. 

According to his obituary in the Lexington Herald-Leader on September 11, 2019:

Tom led a life of travel, service and humility that was particularly enriched by the time he spent in the Peace Corps and teaching at Berea [C]ollege. Both organizations defined the course of his life and helped him to serve the people that he met with pride, passion and love. Before his passing he remarked that he had lived a great life and had accomplished more than he had ever imagined. He approached his final days with the following thought from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass: “Free and light hearted I take to the Open Road.”

Because Dr. Boyd was devoted to living a frugal, simple life, he accumulated enough finances to donate to several organizations and programs, including Berea College. His gift was the largest to the College by any staff member of the school at the time.

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Thomas Andrew Boyd was born in Kenton County, Kentucky, on November 24, 1942. He was his parents’ only child. He died in Berea, Kentucky, on August 20, 2019.

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Title	Thomas Boyd
Alt. Title	Tom Boyd ; Thomas A. Boyd ; Dr. Thomas Andrew Boyd ; Dr. Boyd ;
Identifier	https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=54026
Creator	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Alt. Creator	Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;
Subject Keyword	Thomas Boyd, Dr. Thomas Andrew Boyd, Tom Boyd, Thomas A. Boyd, WWII, Wabash College, Peace Corps, International Institute of Social Studies, Cambridge University, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Habitat for Humanity International, Berea College, social equality, sustainable living, Kentucky Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, White House Clinics, Kentucky River Foothills Community Action Agency, firefighter, Habitat for Humanity, New Liberty Homeless Shelter, wood sculptures, philanthropy
Subject LCSH	Boyd, Thomas Andrew,  — 1942 – 2019. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Education — Kentucky — Harlan County. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern.
Date	2012-12-06 aae
Publisher	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Contributor	n/a
Type	Collections ; text ; image ;
Format	Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet.
Source	Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Board of Trustees
Language	English
Relation	Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 02: GOVERNANCE – Board of Trustees and Series 09: BIOGRAPHY.
Coverage Temporal	1942 – 2019
Coverage Spatial	Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; Ohio ; Illinois : Crawfordsville, IN ; Columbia, South America ; New Mexico ; The Hague, Netherlands ; Buckhannon, WV ; England ; Zambia ; China ; Peru ; India ; Berea, KY ; Richmond, KY ; Kenton County, KY ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor	n/a
Description	Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of Thomas  Boyd ; clippings, photographs, books by or about Thomas Boyd ;
Acquisition	n/d
Citation	“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Processed By	Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;
Last Updated
Sources	“A Different Way of Being in the World” by Abbie Darst, July 28, 2020. Berea College Magazine, Summer 2020. https://magazine.berea.edu/in-the-classroom/a-different-way-of-being-in-the-world/ ; Accessed 05 December 2022.. Internet resource. “Thomas Boyd Obituary.” Published by the Lexington Herald-Leader on September 11, 2019, via Legacy.com website. Accessed 05 December 2022. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kentucky/name/thomas-boyd-obituary?id=9922085 ; Internet resource. “Tom Boyd,” “Thomas Boyd.” Series 02: GOVERNANCE – Board of Trustees and Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Board of Trustees. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. Internet resource.
Selected Bibliography	Boyd, Tom. “Appalachian Institutions, Appalachian Culture: A Case for Distinctiveness?”.” A paper presented as part of the panel discussion, THE PEOPLE OF APPALACHIA: CLASS OR CULTURE at a 1981 Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society. Boyd, Tom and Alan J. DeYoung, “Experts vs. Amateurs: The Irony of School Consolidation in Jackson County, Kentucky.” Appalachian Journal, XIII (Spring 1986), 275-283. Boyd, Tom. “Progress Is Our Most Important Product: Decline in Citizen Participation and the Professionalization of Schooling in an Appalachian Rural County,” in Sam Gray (ed.), The Many Faces of Appalachia (Boone: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985), 107-124. Boyd, Tom. “A Status Survey of the PMSS Service Area Population.” Berea College Department of Sociology. Studies in Applied Sociology Nr. 11. March 1985.

See Also:
EDUCATION Guide
PUBLICATIONS Related – Overview

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GOVERNANCE BOT Chronological Guide