Thomas John Boyer's Obituary
Tom was born in Hamtramck, a polish suburb of Detroit, MI, to John Bojnarowicz (Vilnius, Poland) and Josephine Hechlik (Wilkes-Barre, PA). At age 11, his family moved “up North” to run the Greenbush Tavern. While attending Oscoda High School, he worked summers at a golf course and country club. Tom graduated from the U of Michigan in 1958 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He worked summers at General Conveyors, near Detroit. Dorm life, hijinks and football became his most fondly remembered times.
He met his wife, Barbara Dupuie, in a bowling league sponsored by Chrysler Missile Division, his first engineering job. Soon after he was laid-off his next job, on the B-70 bomber for North American Aviation (NAA) in Columbus, OH, they married in Roseville, MI on Nov. 21, 1959 and relocated to California as their honeymoon.
Son David was born in 1960 while Tom was a Structural Engineer at the Pomona Division of General Dynamics. Son Robert was born in 1963 while employed by the Atomics International Division of NAA in Canoga Park. Son Glen was born in 1965 during his year with Solar Turbines in San Diego. In 1966 they moved into a new home in Clairemont where Tom tended his citrus trees and lived out the rest of his life. He received a MS in Mechanical Engineering from SDSU in 1977. He was a Value Engineer for 28 years at the Convair Division of General Dynamics in San Diego for the Atlas rocket, DC-10, Space Shuttle, Tomahawk and Advanced Cruise Missile. When Convair shut down in 1994, Tom was forced into early retirement.
He played volleyball, flag-football and loved pets. He enjoyed woodworking and help his boys build winning Pinewood Derby race cars. He coached Little League teams and championed Boy Scout Fair tickets, propelling Robert and Glen to historic sales figures. The family spent weeks, every summer, in Michigan or on long road trips through the National Parks. Tom and Barbara vacationed in Bermuda and celebrated their 25th anniversary in Jamaica. His wife of 34 years passed away on Nov. 23, 1993 after two years of battling breast cancer.
Tom loved Broadway and Big Band music. The stereo system he built was always on and made the finals of “Name That Tune” at the San Diego auditions. He attended all of David’s musical performances from grade school until last year. His last decade was a struggle with pain management due to spinal stenosis and bad knees. 6 weeks after suffering a serious bleeding ulcer, his heart failed.
He is survived by 3 sons, their wives Vickie and Anne-marie and 3 grandchildren, Crystal, Ryan and Joshua. Visitation Dec. 16, 5 – 8pm, Clairemont Mortuary. Memorial mass, Dec. 17, 10:30am, Immaculata Church on USD campus. Interment at El Camino Memorial Park, Sorrento Valley.
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