Please
send your thoughts to the family by clicking on this link
Arthur "Gene" Boysen
Arthur
Eugene “Gene” Boysen, 79, of Grand Island,
died Saturday July 21, 2007 at
St. Francis Medical Center.
Services
will be at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday at All Faiths
Funeral Home in Grand Island. Burial will be in the Oakridge
Cemetery
at Dannebrog.
Visitation
will be from 4-8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral
home.
Gene
was born in Fort Dodge
Iowa, July 3rd,
1928 to Lou and Myrna Grace (Stover)
Boysen and was raised on the family farm in Havelock Iowa. He
lived on the family farm throughout childhood and graduated
from Havelock High in 1946. He continued to farm with his
parents, and
now had a new brother, Gary Lou. He enlisted in the Marine
Corps during
the Korean War in 1950, serving basic training in San Diego,
stationed in North Carolina
and Puerto Rico.
He was trained to operate heavy equipment,
achieving the rank of staff sergeant quickly, then honorably
discharged.
After the war, he attended Morningside
College,
Sioux
City, Iowa
with a bachelors’ degree in Marketing. He and Pat
Foley met there during
their higher education years; they were joined in marriage on December
27,
1956. He started his career with Caterpillar at
their international
office in Peoria, Illinois
that same year, soon after taking an assignment at the
state’s “Cat”
dealership, “Lincoln Equipment Company”, in their Grand Island
offices. While at
Caterpillar’s Lincoln Nebraska
dealership, he was promoted to the sales
manager position in the mid 1960s. During this period
(1958-1967) he was most
proud of his involvement with building Interstate 80 through Nebraska.
In 1967, he returned
to Grand
Island, starting his own heavy
equipment company/corporation called “Gene Boysen and
Associates” that he
continued to operate throughout the rest of his life with his family,
friends
and colleagues. He was involved in many ventures
surrounding heavy
equipment including gravel mining, farming and farm real
estate. He
developed and land leveled two farms for irrigation in the Dannebrog
and Rockville
areas in 1978
for part-time farming while continuing in the heavy equipment business
as well
the remaining years, until his first stroke shortly after the turn of
the
millennium. He enjoyed the Danish heritage he shared with the
Dannebrog
area, and considered the farm and Dannebrog a second home.
Many times in
his latter years he could be found at the local eatery
“Harriett’s” at lunch. He
was able to slow down more in the later years of his
life. He
enjoyed the playing with dogs, watching movies, attending his
children’s
activities, especially his youngest daughter’s fast pitch
softball.
Those
left to cherish his memory are his wife of 50 years, Pat Boysen, and
four
children. His children include Connie Jean Boysen-Portwood of
Overland
Park Kansas; Mark Michael Boysen of Grand Island; Drs. Lee
Ann &
Anthony Sementa of Lombard, Illinois and Amy Lu & Kevin Reinke
of Gilbert,
Arizona, his brother, Gary Lou Boysen and his six grandchildren: Gina,
Luci, Erin,
Spencer, Teresa Ann, and Kaden.
His parents preceded him in
death.
In lieu of flowers, memorials
are suggested to the Dannebrog Community Center
or Alcoholics Anonymous.
