In Memoriam: Alex Boardman

Posted on by RMAG

Title: In Memoriam: Alex Boardman
Author: Al Nelson
Publication: The Outcrop, October 2005, p. 13

RMAG recently lost one of the oldest still active geologists in the person of Alex Boardman who died at the age of 85 after many years as a consultant and top authority on Denver Basin geology. Alex particularly was an authority on the geology of Washington County, Colorado, site of some of the largest oil reserves in the entire Denver Basin. He had endured a lengthy illness.

In 1940, Alex left the family farm in Indiana to join the National Guard. Unbelievably, the day he was discharged from the Guard he walked across the street and joined the Navy. Starting at the very bottom as an apprentice seaman he became a fighter pilot and officer in the U.S. Naval Air Corps. His office for years was adorned with models and photos of the F4U Corsair that he flew in combat in the South Pacific. He served his country for 8 years in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve. It was very fitting that all the songs played at his Memorial Service were sung by the choir from the U.S. Naval Academy.

It is unusual that Alex picked the college he was going to after the war by how beautiful it looked from the air as he flew over it while in student pilot training. (His alma mater, Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, was just ranked No. 5 out of 104 liberal arts colleges).

Upon graduation in 1949, Alex went to work for Stanolind Oil & Gas Company, working in Wyoming, Utah, and Montana. After 6 years with a major company, Alex and family moved to Denver. He broadened his experience with smaller companies: British American in Alaska, Ralph Fair, Irv Wolf, and Baumgartner Oil & Gas. In about 1962 Alex became a consultant and for 43 years survived the ups and downs of the oil industry.

Many will remember Alex as the great joke teller when he introduced weekly speakers as program chairman at our luncheons in the “roaring sixties.” Alex was thrilled to come to one last RMAG luncheon in May as one of 32 World War II veterans who were recognized by RMAG that day for the first time. This past April he also became a 50-year member of RMAG.