Dr. Boothe plans were to become a lawyer. During his senior year (1960), he was very active in the presidential campaign of Senator Stuart Syminton (MO). If Senator Symington did not win the Democratic nomination (Kennedy won instead), he was going to work on Capitol Hill and would then go to law school in D.C.. Towards the end of his senior year, he fell dramatically in love, proposed, and his future wife Nancy accepted. Having put himself through school financially, he needed desperately a job to help support the marriage. In having his teaching certification, he obtained a teaching position at Valparaiso, IN High School. He loved teaching so much that he scrapped his plans to be a lawyer.

     Dr. Boothe then returned to the U. of MO - Columbia and finished his Master's degree in History in nine months. In 1962, he entered the University of IL-Champaign-Urbana to study under the renowned Diplomatic historian, Dr. Norman Graebner. His major field was American History with a specialty in American Diplomacy with a first minor in Latin American History. His other three minor fields were Middle East, Far East, and Soviet Foreign Policy. He received the outstanding teaching award from the University while teaching as a Graduate Assistant.

     In the summer of 1965, Dr. Boothe launched two new careers: the birth of his first child Cynthia and obtaining a teaching position at the University of Mississippi. Those were exciting years with many cultural and political changes in MS as evidenced by the movie Mississippi Burning. He taught upper division and graduate level courses in American Diplomacy as well as Recent U.S.. He supervised Master and Doctoral students and was the Graduate Student Advisor. Dr. Boothe was also the faculty advisor to a very successful chapter of Phi Alpha Theta. He became Assistant Department Chairman. Dr. Boothe also was granted the first National Endowment for the Humanities Award ever given to a Mississippian. He and his family spent the 1967-68 academic year in D.C. where he did research and writing. They also witnessed first hand the rioting which took place after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Family wise, twin daughters Diana and Cheri were born in 1966.

     In the summer of 1970, Dr. Boothe left Ole Miss to become Dean of George Mason College of the University of Virginia which was a new institution of higher education (4 years old) being built in the suburbs of Northern VA. The school had 1700 undergraduate day students in 1970, but had over 12,500 when Dr. Boothe left in 1980 plus graduate programs including the first approved doctoral programs and professional programs such as law and engineering. In 1972, the school broke away from the U. of VA to become a free standing public university known as George Mason. All of the new colleges spun out of Dr. Boothe's unit, and he became known as the "father of all of the colleges". In 1972, his title changed to Dean of Arts and Sciences. The University today has an enrollment of over 25,000 students. He taught a course every semester while he was Dean. Dr. and Mrs. Boothe were very active with the Diplomatic Corps and counted a number of Ambassadors as personal friends. He was also designated on two different occasions as a Scholar Diplomat which entailed working at the U.S. State Department.

     Dr. Boothe became Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost at Illinois State University in February 1980. The University had an enrollment of 22,000 students. This was a time of recession, and universities were not allowed to grow.
Dr. Boothe won recognition for enrollment management, recruiting minorities, and the development of new programs during tight economic times. Dr. Boothe taught History courses every other semester while serving as Provost

     In July 1983, Dr. Boothe became President of Northern KY University where he served for thirteen years. The University grew 50 % in enrollment and 50% in the physical plant plus many new academic programs were added despite a 50% + decline in the share of state support. Residence halls were expanded from about 400 to a 1,000 students with a new concept of suite living. With the approach of death of his chronically wife, Dr. Boothe retired as President in the summer of 1996. After her death in January 1997, Dr. Boothe became Senior Advisor for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center project which is a $110 million undertaking. Dr. Boothe had been involved with this project since its inception as an idea. In feeling that he had accomplished what he wanted for the Freedom Center, he returned to full time teaching in August of 2000.

     In terms of his writing and research, Dr. Boothe had published articles and book reviews in 15 different journals and publications plus having serve as a commentator or presented papers to numerous national and international organizations. He has won many local, regional, and national awards including chairing the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. He has also been included in diverse number of Who's Who publications. Dr. Boothe has been very active in serving on over 30 community boards as well as national and international organizations.

     Dr. Boothe married Karen Ball in November 2000, and they now have seven children and eleven grandchildren.