Alfred Boyington, WSU Professor Emeritus of Music, Dies

PULLMAN, Wash.– Alfred M. Boyington, longtime professor of music and director of
orchestra at Washington State University, died March 4 in a Palm Desert, Calif., convalescence
center. He was 91.
Boyington came to Pullman in 1933 as an instructor of violin and director of orchestra at
what was then Washington State College. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1941. In
1942, he was granted a military leave during World War II. He resumed his teaching at WSU in
1946 and was promoted to associate professor the same year. During the 1946-47 academic year,
he was elevated to the rank of professor. He retired in 1973 as professor emeritus of music.
Throughout his professional career at WSU, he taught violin and directed orchestra.
He was born Oct. 17, 1907, to Gertrude (Rohrer) and Schuyler S. Boyington in Osawatomie,
Kan. His father was employed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
After graduating from Northeast High School in Kansas City, Mo., in 1925, Boyington spent
two years studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Then he was engaged in the
private study of music in France and Germany for two years. He earned a music degree at the
Julliard School in New York City in 1933. He completed a master’s of music degree at the
University of Michigan in 1953.
Survivors include his widow, Elizabeth Earle Boyington of Palm Desert, a 1950 WSU
graduate in education, and two sons. Paul S. Boyington, Culver City, Calif., attended art classes
at WSU when he was enrolled at Pullman High School. David M. Boyington of Vancouver is a
1978 WSU graduate in civil engineering.
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