SIR Wally Boeck

Walter G. Boeck 
Born: Sept. 27, 1941 
Died: Nov. 6, 2008 

Remembered as: Former executive director of the California Student Aid 
Commission; a distinguished Marine Corps pilot of test and fighter planes 
Survived by: Wife, Patricia Carroll of Rancho Murieta; daughter, Beverly Boeck 
of Eagle, Idaho; sons, Darren Boeck and Travis Boeck, both of El Dorado Hills; 
stepdaughter, Tricia Taylor of Colorado Springs, Colo.; stepson, Pete Dumont 
of Camarillo; brothers, Fred Boeck of Augusta, Ga., and Peter Boeck of Santa 
Rosa; and 11 grandchildren.

Services: 11 a.m. Dec. 13 at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, 14673 
Cantova Way, Rancho Murieta. Donations may be made to the Wally Boeck Memorial 
Fund for Youth Aviation, P.O. Box 595, Rancho Murieta, CA 95683.Our Region - 

Walter G. Boeck, a distinguished Marine Corps aviator and former head of the 
California Student Aid Commission, has died in an airplane crash. He was 67.
Mr. Boeck was flying a 1946 Globe Swift GC-1A airplane that took off from Rancho 
Murieta Airport on Nov. 6 and crashed in Calaveras County, investigators said. 
Searchers found his body and plane wreckage Nov. 7 on the southern shore of Lake 
Camanche, according to a statement from the Calaveras County Sheriff's 
Department.

A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot 
of a second plane shadowing Mr. Boeck noticed him slumped over in the cockpit 
and was unable to rouse him on the radio. The second plane had to turn back when 
its fuel ran low, the report said. 

Mr. Boeck, who had restored the vintage plane and was piloting its second test 
flight, may have had a heart attack, said his son Darren.

He had lived in Rancho Murieta since being named executive director of the 
Student Aid Commission in 1998. He oversaw a doubling of the agency's Cal Grant 
program to serve more than 200,000 students before retiring in 2003.
He was active in Rancho Murieta as a public proponent of full flight services at 
the community airport and chapter president of the Experimental Aircraft 
Association. He gave free flying lessons to schoolchildren and volunteered with 
Junior Eagles, a program encouraging young people to seek aviation careers.
"He loved to fly and loved everything about flying," his son said. "His country 
had given him that opportunity in the military, and he wanted to pass it along 
to young people."

Mr. Boeck got his wings in the Marines. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 
1979 after 21 years as a highly decorated fighter and test pilot.
A "Top Gun" graduate and instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons School in 
Miramar, he flew F-8 Crusaders out of Florida and Puerto Rico during the Cuban 
missile crisis and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. He designed fighter 
planes at the former Naval Air Development Center in Warminster, Pa., and was 
selected in 1978 for the space shuttle program.

Walter Guy Boeck was born in 1941 in Bronx, N.Y., and later moved with his 
family to New Mexico. He left high school before graduation and joined the 
Marines at age 17. He earned a general equivalency diploma, and received a 
bachelor's degree in computer science and master's degrees in computer science 
and business mathematics from the University of Hawaii.

After the military, he worked for NASA as program director for flight simulators 
at Moffett Field. He held executive positions at high-tech firms and was 
president of the Ventura County Business Incubator before moving to Rancho 
Murieta.

Mr. Boeck had three children with the former Patricia Shimer. The marriage ended 
in divorce, and he married Patricia Carroll in 1993.

He enjoyed playing golf but spent most of his time in recent years working as a 
consultant and restoring his Globe Swift airplane.

"He was a very outgoing and very self-confident," Darren Boeck said. "His 
presence really dominated a room."