After WWII ended, his parents returned to their hometown of Center, Texas, a rural, racially segregated Bible Belt town.
[1][3] Young Boles was an avid student, and after high school enrolled at Rice University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965.
Near the end of his ten-year tenure at Towson he was also an NEH Fellow in Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University.
In 1977 he initiated his long-term relationship with Rice University, working there for a year as visiting editor of the Journal of Southern History.
Boles' aim was to "view him [Jefferson] holistically and within the rich context of his time and place."