The Iowa Museum Association Board of Directors has selected former University of Iowa President Willard “Sandy” Boyd to receive its inaugural Leadership Award. An award ceremony will be held on Monday, Oct. 22, during the annual meeting and conference of the Iowa Museum Association in Iowa City.

The award was established to recognize outstanding contributions to the museum field through visionary leadership, says Cynthia Sweet, Iowa Museum Association executive director.

“Sandy Boyd is without exception the singular most influential leader the Iowa museum community has seen in the last fifty years,” says Deb Dunkhase, executive director of the Iowa Children’s Museum in Coralville. “His participation on nonprofit boards of directors, foundations, national committees and advisory boards has positively impacted museums and nonprofit organizations all across Iowa. The Iowa Museum Association is proud to honor him with the Inaugural Iowa Museum Association Leadership Award."

Boyd is the Rawlings-Miller Professor of Law in the UI College of Law. He served as UI president from 1969 to 1981 and as president of the Field Museum in Chicago from 1981 to 1996. He returned to Iowa to teach law and to serve as interim UI president between 2002 and 2003. Since returning to the UI, he has focused on the role of nonprofits in Iowa and the United States. He is one of the founders of the Iowa Nonprofit Resource Center and teaches courses on the legal and operational aspects of nonprofit organizations.

He also served as chair of the National Museum Services Board and received the Charles Frankel Award (predecessor to the National Humanities Medal) from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Tickets for the Oct. 22 luncheon, to be held in the second floor ballroom of the Iowa Memorial Union on the UI campus, are $25 each and may be obtained through the Iowa Museum Association at imasweet@cfu.net.