Napoleon Hiram Boynton (1885–1950) was born in Minneapolis and attended high school in Chicago. He worked for several Chicago printing companies, a laboratory supply company, and Western Electric before graduating in 1909 from the University of Illinois with a degree in electrical engineering. That same year, he married Winifred Valer. The couple moved to Cleveland, where Boynton worked as publicity manager for General Electric’s National Lamp Works and joined the Cleveland Advertising Club. He helped to organize the 1914 Cleveland Electrical Exposition, and during the war participated in the Red Cross home service program. By 1918 he had been appointed manager of GE’s Buckeye Sales Division.

Boynton lent his promotional and sales skills to a variety of civic projects. He was a director of Cleveland Trust, active in the Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland Health Museum, and Welfare Federation, and served as the first publicity director of the Community Fund. Winifred died in 1948, and the following year Boynton married Edna Bingham. The marriage was short-lived, however. Boynton died in 1950 at age 64.