Reverend Rae Verne Boxill

1936 - 2018

Reverend Rae Verne Boxill
August 5, 1936 - September 24, 2018
Resident of Hayward
Reverend Boxill was born in Castries, Saint Lucia. He attended the Methodist Elementary School and completed secondary school at Saint Mary's College where he was taught by Presentation Brothers. He graduated from Caenwood Theological College in Kingston, Jamaica in 1965 and was later ordained in Antigua as a minister in the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA). He then proceeded to matriculate from the University of London with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Theology and Ethics in 1967. In 1978 he received a M.Ed. from Stanford University.
Reverend Boxill's first assignment as a minister was in Guyana in South America. He also served the Methodist church in Saint Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saint Lucia. In addition, he served as principal of Entrepot Secondary School in Castries before moving to America with his young family.
For a period of time in the 1980s, Reverend Boxill was the pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church in Mountain View. He also worked at a vocational school in Menlo Park called O.I.C.W. where he was a teacher and counselor. During the last two decades of his life he taught Mathematics and English and was mentor and counselor to students, and staff at Escuela Popular Accelerated Family Learning School, a K-12 charter school in San Jose. Reverend Boxill is survived by his wife of 52 years Merle, his children Diane, Andrew, and Beverley, and his brother Bryan.
Reverend Boxill will be remembered as a man of principle who was committed to Christian service. Always generous with his time and talents, he was willing to help out wherever and whenever he could. He loved his students and viewed them as extended members of his family.
Reverend Boxill enjoyed many of the simple pleasures in life such as gardening, cooking, singing—particularly harmonizing with Merle, and solving crossword puzzles. One of his passions was studying the life and works of John Wesley the founder of Methodism. Along with Merle, he was an active member of the adult class that met on Sundays at LAUMC. He enjoyed the discussions, intellectual discourse and spiritual engagement that took place during those Sunday morning sessions. A polymath, he was always willing to share his knowledge with others. One of his favorite pastimes was bird watching at the local baylands. When his children were young he coached youth soccer. An avid reader, he navigated topics ranging from philosophy to westerns. A lover of sports, he was a loyal supporter of the San Francisco Giants, the San Francisco 49ers, Stanford football and various European and English Premier League soccer teams.
A memorial will be celebrated at Los Altos United Methodist Church, 655 Magdalena Avenue, Los Altos, on Sunday October 28, at 2:00 pm, followed by a reception. Reverend Boxill's ashes are interred at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, Palo Alto. Donations in lieu of flowers to the Library Project at Escuela Popular, 149 North White Road, San Jose 95127.


View the online memorial for Reverend Rae Verne Boxill