William Rufus and Gertye Watson Boyd
William Rufus Boyd, Jr., banker and chairman of the War Council
of
the Petroleum Industry during World War II, qv the son of Judge William
R.
and Lizzie (Self) Boyd, was born in Fairfield, Freestone County, Texas,
on
January 7, 1885. He attended Fairfield public schools and after high
school
was employed as a printer at the Fairfield Recorder.He then attended
Metropolitan
Business College in Dallas and later studied law at George Washington
University in
Washington, D.C. He received his law license at age nineteen. Boyd
was
subsequently appointed secretary to Congressman Scott Field,qv who
represented Freestone and Limestone counties. He served for two years
in
Washington before moving in 1906 back to Freestone County,where he
became the first mayor of Teague at the age of twenty-one. He soon
moved
to Eddy, McLennan County, where he organized the Farmers and Merchants
State Bank and was its president for two years. He was the Texas
representative of the National Citizens League for the Promotion of
a
Sound Banking System and later served as a member of the Dallas
investment firm of Philip, Boyd, and Company. At the outbreak of World
War I he served in as the regional manager of the Chamber of
Commerce
of the United States. After the war he was the national campaign manager
for the League to Enforce Peace, an organization led by former President
William Howard Taft, which sought support for United States membership
in the League of Nations.
Boyd joined the American Petroleum Institute in 1920 and served as vice
president from 1928 to 1941 and as president from 1941 to 1949. During
World War II he was chairman of the War Council of the Petroleum
Industry, a national war service agency that delegated petroleum
resources to the war effort. In 1946 President Harry S. Truman conferred
upon Boyd Presidential Medal of Merit, the highest government decoration
possible for a civilian, for his service during the war.
Boyd married Gertye Watson of Fairfield on May 17, 1906, and they had
one child. From 1950 to 1959 he devoted his time to civic, patriotic,
charitable, and religious organizations. He was a member of the Texas
Turnpike Authority from 1955 to 1959 and founded the Methodist Men's
Club in Teague. Boyd died on November 6, 1959, in Teague and was buried
in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1969 a Texas state historical marker
was erected for Boyd in Teague.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Freestone County Historical Commission, History of
Freestone County, Texas (Fairfield, Texas, 1978).Vertical Files, Barker
Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.