Born: 1896, United States
Died: 1977
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the Minnesota Historical Society’s MNopedia, in line with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. It was written by Julie Kelly and Kathy Robbins.
Ruth Boynton was a physician, researcher, and administrator who spent almost her entire career at the University of Minnesota (U of M). She worked in public health and student health services at a time (the mid-twentieth century) when there were few women in either of those fields. She was director of the University Student Health Service from 1936 to 1961, and the facility was renamed Boynton Health Service in her honor in 1975.
Ruth Evelyn Boynton was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1896. She decided to become a doctor while still in high school. Her family’s physician, Dr. Mary P. Houck, was said to have set an example that influenced her decision to go into medicine. She started college at La Crosse State Normal School and transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from which she graduated with a major in medical sciences and coursework in Latin and French.
Dr. Boynton attended the U of M’s Medical School and graduated in 1921. In the same year, she was hired as one of the first full-time physicians at the U of M Student Health Service, in which role she treated patients during serious outbreaks of scarlet fever and influenza. She saw patients with a wide variety of diseases, including tuberculosis. Over the years, however, tuberculosis became a major focus of her research and publications. Boynton was director of the Minnesota Department of Health Division of Child Hygiene from 1923 to 1927 and also spent one year at the University of Chicago (1927–1928) as the chief medical advisor for women and assistant professor of medicine.
In 1929 Boynton returned to the U of M, where she remained for the rest of her career. Harold Diehl, a previous director of the Student Health Service, recommended Boynton for the job of director. In his letter, he commented that he wasn’t sure if a woman could do the job, but if there was one who could, it was Ruth Boynton.
Boynton was director of the Student Health Service from 1936 until her retirement in 1961. During this time she expanded it into one of the best and most complete student health services in the country. She started new programs during her time as director, including a special food service for students with diseases such as diabetes, hired health educators to promote disease prevention, and managed the use of radioactive materials on campus. She also boosted psychological and psychiatric counseling services for patients. As director, she served as an administrator, physician, researcher, and teacher. She ran the U of M School of Public Health during World War II when its director left to serve in the Army.
Throughout her career, Boynton was active in groups such as the American College Health Association. The association now awards an annual Ruth E. Boynton Award for service to the association. She served for twenty-two years on the Minnesota State Board of Health, and was twice elected its president, in 1945 and 1951.
Boynton retired from the university in 1961. She moved to Florida, where she volunteered her time as the secretary-treasurer of the American College Health Association for several years. In 1975, the University of Minnesota honored her career and accomplishments by renaming the Student Health Service Boynton Health Service, the name it still bears. She passed away in 1977.