Douglas Gilbert Bovard

1957 - 2022

Douglas Gilbert Bovard

August 19, 1957 - September 15, 2022

"Smart lad, to slip betimes away

From fields where glory does not stay…"

To An Athlete Dying Young, A.E. Housman

Douglas was our "golden boy" swimmer & pilot. In 1975 he was the Iowa state champ in the 100-yard backstroke (Mason City's first individual winner in the sport of swimming), won the 200-medley relay with brother Scott, and helped his team to its first state swimming championship. It was a glorious moment & one etched in memory. The win established a legacy for the swim program under Coach Colville, and now Coach Hugo, that continues today.

Doug was born in Mason City, Iowa in August of 1957 to Genie & Gilbert Bovard. He had an older brother Ralph and an older sister Sally, and 11 months later, a younger brother Scott. Scott became his cohort in crime on 10th street near Monroe Junior High. All 4 kids attended Washington Grade School and had Ethel Ehlers, the same long suffering kindergarten teacher, who had subdued their father some 30 years previously. Of note, Doug was the only one in the family who could beat sister Sal in arm wrestling!

Doug attended Luther college for one year and then transferred to ISU. He graduated with a degree in transportation in 1979. He enlisted in the army and became a Bell Cobra helicopter pilot; he was second in his class at the Fort Rucker (Alabama) aviation training program. He served five years as a Warrant Officer and did a year in Korea patrolling the DMZ. He came back to the US in 1986 and took a job working for Boeing. While in the Pacific Northwest, he had the opportunity to work on unique projects including the AWACS security system. He had good Iowa friends there in Mike Thorpe and Ken Koningsmark. Doug lived in initially in Issaquah and later in Puyallup, WA.

Throughout these years Doug maintained his military service moving from the Army to the Navy Reserve and serving at Whidbey Island, WA naval base. Doug continued to fly on his return to civilian life, but he switched from helicopters to smaller fixed-wing planes. He owned or leased a succession of planes including a fabric-winged Cesna 140, a Cesna 165, and a metal Luscombe tail-dragger. He flew across the Rockies several times to visit family back in the Midwest. His noble golden lab, Jake, was his co-pilot on several voyages. There was a wonderful picture of Jake in aviators goggles at the helm with Doug as co-pilot. He was safe and cautious but there were always storms and some wild stories. But he always came back to earth safely… "brother to a dragonfly".

When he returned to visit mom and dad in Clear Lake, Iowa, he would consistently drive them mad with his ultra-secure passwords that mixed upper and lower case, special signs, symbols, Egyptian cuneiform & hieroglyphics, as is common now but was confounding back then. Despite his computer savvy we were all afraid to have him work on our computers lest he assign us a password beyond cognition.

Doug met his wife, Victoria Anne Morgan, at Boeing and they were married in 1997. They moved briefly to San Jose and later to Huntsville, Alabama where he worked for Lockheed-Martin for a number of years. In retirement they sold their home, visited Colorado briefly and then settled in the town of Show Low, AZ in the foothills.

In the early 1990s Doug and I drove up to Bellingham, Washington to go sea kayaking with old friends Mike Thorpe & Wade Henrichs. We explored the San Juan islands and then headed out to Orcas island on what started as a tranquil day. A sudden fog dropped in late morning and I remember watching with some concern as Doug disappeared into the eerie cloud bank…. And such may be our life. Sunshine one moment, then fading, enveloped into the mist, into something undefined and greater than ourselves. Doug flashed his wry, calming smile on us, and has set off on a new voyage. His death was attributed to a heart attack. Journey well dear brother!

Several swim friends, John & Charlie Hugo and Jay Pedelty, wrote that they did their morning swims last week, all backstroke, in Doug's honor, and thought of him while gazing skyward. I wanted to end with A.E.Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young", but it is best read aloud as Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) did for her pilot Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford) at the end of "Out of Africa". You may wish to read the poem or watch that lovely film in his memory.

Douglas was preceded in death by his mother Eugenia Ulvestad Bovard who died in 2011 and by his father Gilbert Klemme Bovard who died in 2020. He's survived by his wife Victoria Bovard of Show Low, AZ. He's also survived by his siblings, younger brother Scott E. Bovard (wife Laura) of Missoula, MT & their grown children Gillian and Andrew; sister Sally (Bovard) Tye (husband Joe) & their grown children Annie Tye and Doug Tye; and older brother Ralph S. Bovard & his wife Marnie Wells in Minneapolis. A memorial will be held at a later date.

Memorials may be sent to the 501(c)3 organizations below- Thank You!:

• USA Swimming Foundation, 1 Olympic Plaza, Colorado Springs, CO 80909 or online at www.usaswimming.org/donate. A major portion of the general donations received by the foundation go towards the Saving Lives Program for learn to swim programs.

• Citizens Climate Lobby: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/donate/legacy-gifts/

• Veterans For Peace: https://www.veteransforpeace.org/donate/donate-veterans-peace