Director of the ceramics program at Marlboro College in Vermont for 30 years, Boylen was part of the nascent studio glass movement in the 1960s. After earning a bachelor's degree in European history from Yale University, he studied ceramics with Frans Wildenhain and Hobart Cowles at the School for American Craftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology. Following work with potter Abraham Cohn, Boylen studied at University of Wisconsin under Harvey Littleton, earning his master of fine art degree in ceramics and glass blowing. He won the Mrs. William D. Vogel Award for his contribution to the Milwaukee Art Center's crafts show in 1964, and received a grant from the Tiffany Foundation in 1965. Interested in both art and history, Boylen taught ceramics at the Haystack Mountain School in Maine and taught history at Milton College in Wisconsin.
