Derek Bovingdon

Derek Bovingdon was a student at the college from 1938 until he was drafted in 1942.

He participated in plays, such as Waiting for Lefty and the Thanksgiving Programme. Derek was drafted in 1942 and served in the Army Air Forces. A college bulletin from January 1943 bulletin shared his marriage to fellow student, "Derek Bovingdon and Barbara Sieck were married January 4, the day Derek graduated from officers’ training school. He is one of a few members of his class chosen to learn to fly the army’s Flying Fortress, and is now in training in New Mexico as a bomber pilot."

He died while fighting in the war and this following bulletin was shared as an announcement. April 1943 bulletin, "Lieutenant Derek Bovingdon, for three years, before his entrance into the Army Air Forces, a student a Black Mountain College, was killed in a bomber crash in Washington State on May 29. Very little is known about the accident, but it is supposed that unfavorable weather conditions were the cause of it. Derek had received his commission on January 4 with a class in which he was one of the nine top ranking men. He was sent immediately with his high ranking eight classmen to Hobbs, New Mexico; there he learned to fly the B-17F, the Flying Fortress. He was not required to go through the usual preliminary step of being a co-pilot, but was entrusted once with the duties of a pilot. From Hobbs he was sent to Ephrita, Washington. On the day that Derek received his commission he and Barbara Sieck, formerly a student at Black Mountain College, were married."

A scholarship fund was created in his name, which was also shared in a college bulletin. March 1949 bulletin, "The Derek Bovingdon Memorial Loan Fund makes possible occasional small loans to students who need money to complete work already begun at the College. The fund is not intended for loans to entering students."

Biography written by Amanda Hartman.

Asheville Art Museum Collection

Writings about Derek can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers: 2017.40.346, 2017.40.022, 2017.40.44

Courses Taken

Fall 1938-1939: Plato (Rice), Music Appreciation (Evarts), Dramatics II (Wunsch), Calculus (Dreier), Psychology (Straus), Chorus (Sly), Music Seminar (Surette), Folk Dancing (Sly)

Spring 1938-1939: Readings in Literature (Kurtz), Plato (Rice), Calculus (Dreier), Dramatics (Wunsch), Music Appreciation (Evarts), Folk Dancing (Sly), Chorus (Sly), Play Reading (Hilda Bailey (informal group)

Fall 1939-1940: Introductory Writing (Wunsch), The English Novel (Kurtz), General Physics (Lindsley), Speech Training (Thurman), Chorus (Jalowetz), Play Production (Wunsch)

Spring 1939-1940: Introductory Writing (Wunsch), The English Novel (Kurtz), Physics Tutorial (Lindsley), Chorus (Jalowetz), Grammar (Kurtz)

Fall 1940-1941: Political Theory (Babcock), Political Theory tutorial (Babcock), Introduction to Economic Thinking (Gothe), Contemporary Architecture (Kocher), Contemporary Architecture Drawing (Kocher), International Relations (open hour, Babcock)

Spring 1940-1941: Political Theory (Babcock), Introduction to Economic Thinking(Gothe), Educational Sociology, Mechanical Drawing (Kocher), Political Theory Tutorial(Babcock)