Ruth Boynton

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ruth Boynton (1896–1977) was a physician, researcher, and administrator who spent almost her entire career at the University of Minnesota. She worked in public health and student health services and directed the University Student Health Service from 1936 to 1961. The service was renamed Boynton Health Service in 1975 in her honor. She also served as acting dean of the School of Public Health from 1944 to 1946.

Born January 3, 1896, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Ruth Boynton was inspired to become a doctor after her family physician, Dr. Mary P. Houck, cared for her brothers during illness. She studied at La Crosse State Normal School, then the University of Wisconsin–Madison, majoring in medical sciences with Latin and French. She earned her medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1921 and joined the Student Health Service as one of its first full-time staff members.

Early in her career she treated patients during scarlet fever and influenza outbreaks, and tuberculosis would later become a major focus of her research. She directed the Minnesota Department of Health’s Division of Child Hygiene from 1923 to 1927, and spent 1927–1928 at the University of Chicago as Chief Medical Advisor for Women and assistant professor of medicine. She returned to Minnesota in 1929.

In 1936 she became Director of the Student Health Service. She expanded the service and started new programs, including a special food service for students with diabetes, health education, the safe handling of radioactive materials on campus, and more psychological counseling. She also ran the School of Public Health during World War II when its director left for military service.

Boynton was active in groups like the American College Health Association, which now gives the Ruth E. Boynton Award for service to the association. She also served 22 years on the Minnesota State Board of Health, serving as president in 1945 and 1951. She retired in 1961 and moved to Florida, where she volunteered with the ACHA for several years.

In 1975 the University renamed the Student Health Service as Boynton Health Service in her honor. She died December 21, 1977, in Miami after a brief illness. In her will she left $20,000 for the Prudence Cutright Scholarship for an outstanding woman graduate student in education at the University of Minnesota and $15,000 to establish a learning resources center for Boynton Health Service staff.