This Week in Texas Methodist History February 16

President Hyer Leaves Presidency of SMU; Returns to Lab and Classroom, February 1920

Few people have had as great an influence in Texas higher education than Robert Stewart Hyer (1860-1929).  The Georgia-born physicist finished his formal education at Emory and moved to Georgetown to teach physics at Southwestern University.   In addition to his teaching duties, he also conducted experiments in x-rays and wireless telegraphy.  In 1894 he sent a wireless message from Southwestern to the County Jail, one mile away.  He built his own x-ray machine. 

He was also an active lay man at First Methodist Church in Georgetown.  In 1898 he reluctantly accepted the presidency of Southwestern and put his impressive stamp on the institution.  He oversaw the completion of the Administration building and moved his physics lab into it.  He also designed a dormitory, Mood Hall.  Both buildings are still in use.  Both my grandfather and I lived in Mood Hall.  Students no longer live there.

In the first decade of the 20^th century Hyer attempted to move Southwestern to the much larger city of Dallas in what is known as the “removal controversy.”  He lost that battle, and in 1911 moved to Dallas to create a new university.  For the next four years Hyer raised money, supervised construction, recruited faculty and students to create Southern Methodist University.   He also picked out the colors (Red and Blue for Harvard and Yale) and chose the name “Mustangs” for the athletic teams.  He even selected the motto  Veritas liberabit vos  

When he arrived in Dallas in May 1911, the future site was nothing but farmland far from the city center, but by 1915 he was ready to welcome students.  

SMU was successful in attracting students from the start, but financial difficulties also appeared   One hundred years ago this week, the trustees asked for Hyer’s resignation.  They wanted someone who was a better fundraiser and named Hiram A. Boaz (1866-1962) as the second president.  Boaz had been president of Polytechnic in Fort Worth (today’s Texas Wesleyan University) and was an ordained Methodist minister.  He served as SMU president only briefly because in 1922 he was elected bishop.

Hyer’s removal was not accompanied with bitterness.  He returned to the classroom and taught both physics and Bible until his death in 1929.  In 1925, a building, the Hyer Hall of Physics, was named in his honor. 

Hyer was active in denominational affairs.  He was a delegate to several General Conferences and a member of the committee that discussed the merger of the MEC and MECS.