Frederic William Boatwright (28 January 1868–31 October 1951), president of the University of Richmond, was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, the son of Reuben Baker Boatwright and Marie Elizabeth Woodruff Boatwright. He was christened Frederick William, but as an adult he dropped the k from his first name and never again used it. Boatwright grew up in Bristol and Marion, where his father was minister at the Baptist churches, and he was educated at Marion Academy and in the local public school.

In 1883 Boatwright entered Richmond College and excelled in languages there. After his 1887 graduation he stayed on to teach introductory Greek and take graduate courses. He received an M.A. in 1888 and also won the Guinn Medal as the most proficient graduate in the school of philosophy. During the 1888–1889 academic year Boatwright served as an instructor of Greek and director of Richmond College's small but expanding athletics program. He spent the following academic year in Europe taking classes in modern languages in Halle, Leipzig, and Paris and spending much time associating with the Baptists in and around Halle.

Boatwright returned to Richmond College in 1890 as professor of modern languages, and on 23 December of that year he married Ellen Moore Thomas. They had one son and one daughter. In frequent contributions to the Baptist journal, the Religious Herald, and other venues Boatwright advocated educational reforms, improved education in the sciences, and an expanded social responsibility for Richmond College and its faculty and students. On 11 December 1894 the board of trustees took day-to-day administrative responsibility away from the faculty and elected the twenty-six-year-old Boatwright president of Richmond College. He accepted and was formally inducted on 22 June 1895.

Boatwright served as president of Richmond College, which became the University of Richmond in 1920, until he retired in June 1946. His fifty-one-year tenure was interrupted only once, when he spent the spring semester of 1922 in Europe. Boatwright oversaw the transformation of the institution from a denominational college with 9 faculty members and fewer than 200 students into a small but substantial university with more than 100 faculty members and almost 2,300 students. He was instrumental in the formation of Westhampton College for women as a counterpart to the traditionally all-male Richmond College, with himself as president of the parent university. Boatwright emphasized the natural sciences and welcomed support for a stronger law school and a new school of business, developments that significantly broadened the original classical- and religion-based curriculum. An energetic fund-raiser who increasingly sought donations from alumni and other supporters instead of depending on the educational funds of the Baptist Church, he helped the school erect a new campus west of downtown Richmond during the 1910s, enlarge the faculty, and provide financial assistance for the students. By the time Boatwright retired, the University of Richmond had assets in excess of $7 million. His relations with leading Baptists were occasionally strained. Boatwright tried to keep the university from being dominated by any faction of the divided denomination, and he took a broad view of the university's role in opposition to some influential Baptist leaders who wanted it to remain a traditional church school.

Boatwright's involvement as a Baptist layman included service as president of the American Baptist Education Association in 1897–1898, the Southern Baptist Education Association in 1904–1905, and the Baptist General Association of Virginia in 1937–1939. He served as president of the Association of Virginia Colleges in 1915–1916, helped found the Association of American Colleges, and sat on the board of trustees of Averett College in Danville for twenty-six years. Boatwright received honorary degrees from Baylor University, Georgetown College, the Medical College of Virginia, and Mercer University. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Richmond when he retired, at which time the board of trustees placed him in the new position of chancellor, which he held until his death. Most fittingly, given his emphasis on teaching and learning, the main library of the University of Richmond was dedicated in 1955 as the Boatwright Memorial Library.

Frederic William Boatwright died at his home in Richmond on 31 October 1951 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in that city.

Sources Consulted:
Reuben E. Alley, Frederic W. Boatwright (1973), frontispiece portait; Alley, History of the University of Richmond, 1830–1971 (1977); University of Richmond Archives; portrait by David Silvette in Sarah Brunet Memorial Hall, University of Richmond; obituaries in Richmond News Leader and Richmond Times-Dispatch, both 1 Nov. 1951, and Religious Herald, 8 Nov. 1951, 10–11; editorial tribute by the university's rector, Douglas Southall Freeman, in Richmond News Leader, 1 Nov. 1951.

Image courtesy of University of Richmond, The Web (1922).

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Brent Tarter.

How to cite this page:
Brent Tarter, "Frederic William Boatwright (1868-1951)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2001 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.php?b=Boatwright_Frederic_William, accessed [today's date]).

Return to the Dictionary of Virginia Biography Search page.