Boese, Ben (1910-1996)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 26 Sep 1996 p. 11

Birth date: 1910

text of obituary:

BEN BOESE

Ben Boese was born in McPherson County, Kan., January 19, 1910, to Peter and Katharina Banman Boese. He graduated from high school in 1929 and worked in the Goessel Bank for four years and in a Wichita bank one year.

He attended Bethel College in the fall of 1935. After receiving a teaching certificate, he taught in rural schools in McPherson County for three years in the Spring Valley and Bunker Hill schools. He then again attended Bethel College and McPherson College, receiving a bachelor's degree in industrial arts from McPherson in 1946. He taught in Galva High School, followed by 27 years of teaching industrial arts, mathematics and driver education at Moundridge High School. Many of his former students have articles of furniture they made in his classes. They remember him as a teacher with a sense of humor and as an avid football and basketball fan.

Ben was a member of Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church for 67 years. On July 31, 1949, he married Gertrude Rinner at Wayland, Iowa. They had met after her graduation from Bethel Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in Newton. They lived in Moundridge all of their married life. Ben continued to farm north of Goessel for most of the years that he taught. For a number of years they would move out to the farm for the summer months. While living in Moundridge they often attended West Zion Mennonite Church.

Ben had an interest in Mennonite history. He helped establish the Mennonite Historical complex in Goessel. He was the first president of the Mennonite Immigrant Historical Foundation. Ben and Gertrude were a special uncle and aunt to their nieces and nephews. They moved to Memorial Home in Moundridge in 1987. Ben died Aug. 30, 1996. His wife, Gertrude, survives. A brother, Johnny, and a sister, Martha, died in infancy. Another sister, Marie, died in 1970.