David Lawrence Boeding
(1953 - 1976)
Great great great grandson of Franz Xavier Boeding (1796 - 1878)
David Lawrence Boeding was the son of Kenneth John Boeding and Rosella Marie (Weir) Boeding. He was born on November 22, 1953 at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Island, Nebraska, baptized the next month at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. He joined two older brothers as the third child in what would become a family of eight children, the first six boys followed by two girls.
Before David started school, the family moved across town to 1221 West First Street, a very large house with a huge room on the second floor that the boys used as a bedroom. His mother was very ill as he became of age to attend kindergarten so he was not enrolled in the public school. He did start the first grade at St. Mary's Catholic School where he continued through the seventh grade. David was a very good student and attained high marks during all of the elementary school years.
With so many boys in the family, sports was a natural channeling for the Dave's competitive spirit. His brothers and any neighborhood boys that could handle the competition were always playing whiffleball or football in the alley beside the house, or basketball behind the garage. Some of the athletic bravado and good natured kidding led Dave into assigning nicknames to all of his siblings. If he didn't invent the nickname, he made sure he always used them so that the nickname would stick. Thirty and forty years later, his siblings still use or go by some of these nicknames, although sometimes reluctantly.
David was a fairly good baseball player when he was growing up. As a twelve year old in the Grand Island Little League Class A division, he hit two over the fence grand slam home runs in back-to-back at bats. He was already bigger than most of his classmates at that age so his athletic ability had a lot to do with his size. By the sixth grade, he was taller and heavier than his older seventh grade brother, Stephen, and not far behind his oldest ninth grade brother, Canute.
The weekend football games that David's dad and his brothers always seemed to participate in were probably the start of his love for football. He dominated the Catholic intra-school football game in the seventh grade. As an eighth grader, he was the starting offensive center on the ninth grade team as well as a starting defensive tackle and place kicker. When the family moved to Aurora, Nebraska the following year, he started on offense and defense for the ninth grade team. As a sophomore and junior, he did not play on the junior varsity because he was already starting on the varsity team. As a sophomore, he discovered another sport that he truly enjoyed, wrestling.
During his sophomore year in high school, Dave suffered a knee ligament injury early in the football season. He recovered in time to start the wrestling season. By the end of the season, he was occasionally wrestling on the varsity team. All athletes in fall and winter sports were encouraged to participate in track and field to maintain their conditioning. The bigger, stronger guys tended to go for the weight events, discus and shotput. This is the route Dave took but he also participated in the "fat man" relays, relay events for shotputters and discus throwers. He ran a 440 yard leg in one relay at the Crete Relays and posted a time that was better than a lot of the regular quarter milers. He demonstrated the speed and endurance that would interest college scouts when they start to call the high school coaches asking about athletic ability, after they have seen the football skills personally.
In the summer of 1971, the Boeding family moved from Aurora to Hastings, Nebraska where Dave's dad worked at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital. The three boys still in high school, Dave, Matthew and Mark, were ready for football season to start so they showed up at the football practice field of Hastings High School. What football coach wouldn't love to have three big athletes join his team, especially since one was a starter for a state-ranked powerhouse Class B team? That first practice was the only one they would attend, dad wanted his boys in the Catholic school, St. Cecilia's. Unfortunately, St. Cecilia's did not have a wrestling team but did have a fairly decent football program. At St. Cecilia's, Dave started on offense and defense, earning football athlete of the year at the school and honorable mention in the all-state balloting in football. His football skills attracted the attention of local college scouts and he accepted a football scholarship to Hasting College.
Throughout high school, sports consumed most of David's time. However, he also excelled in academics. After his sophomore year, he was invited into the National Honor Society. After completing high school, he accepted an academic scholarship to Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska, to go along with his football scholarship. During his college years, he continued to maintained his excellent academic record.
Dave's years at Hastings College were successful both athletically and academically. Early in the football season of his Junior year, Dave began to show the symptoms of a chronic illness: constant headaches, sore throat and lack of energy. He was diagnosed to have a brain tumor which doctors' said was inoperable because its position close to the brain stem. After undergoing chemo- and radiation therapy and an operation to relieve some of the pressure, the doctors said there was nothing else that could be done. The following summer, on June 16, he died at the family home in Hastings, having been cared for by his family for the last few months. He was buried at the Parkview Cemetery in Hastings.