James Knox Boak III – Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

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From a contemporary press report:

Retired Navy Lieutenant Commander James Knox Boak III, 79, died July 24, 2001, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda of cancer after a brief illness.

Commander Boak was born July 22, 1922, in Philadelphia, the son of the late Navy Commodore James Earl Boak and Elizabeth Ambler Boak Stout. He attended 15 different schools before graduating from high school. He attended Dartmouth College until receiving an appointment to the Naval Academy. After graduating from the academy with the Class of 1945, he served on several warships, including the USS Alaska, before taking flight training in Pensacola, Florida. Later he commanded P-3s.

During his flight career, he served in Maine, Greenland, Iceland and Malta, among other places. He also taught at the Naval Academy and worked in Washington before retiring from the Navy in 1964.

He settled in Annapolis and was a director of personnel for Westinghouse at its Bay Bridge and Friendship Airport offices until 1973, when he began working at the Bureau of Naval Personnel.

From the early 1960s until the 1980s he taught business courses at various universities in the Baltimore-Washington area, including the Baltimore College of Commerce, Towson State University, the University of Baltimore, Loyola College of Maryland and George Washington University.

Commander Boak also had his own consultant business, Boak Associates, through which he helped local businesses reorganize into profitable businesses. One of his more personally rewarding clients was Hooper & Sons Mills, which he helped to stay in operation until it was sold to a Japanese firm after Mr. Hooper died.

Commander Boak enjoyed traveling with his wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Osborn Boak, who died on September 19, 1998. Until recently, he was active with his alumni associations and with the Annapolis Stamp Club.

Surviving are six sons, James “Jack” Boak IV of Baltimore, Jerry Boak of New York, Jay Boak of Denver, Jeff Boak of Chapel Hill, N.C., Robert Thurlow of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., and Dr. William Thurlow of Prince Edward Island, Canada; two daughters, Betsey Nadle of Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., and Kathy Dubishar of Herndon, Va.; 14 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 11:30 a.m. August 8 at the Naval Academy Chapel, with burial at 11 a.m. August 9 at Arlington National Cemetery. Arrangements are by Taylor Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society, Anne Arundel County, 1041 Route 3 North, Gambrills, MD 21054, or the Naval Academy Alumni Association, 247 King George St., Annapolis, MD 21402.

BOAK, JAMES K III

  • LCDR   US NAVY
  • WORLD WAR II, KOREA, VIETNAM
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 07/22/1922
  • DATE OF DEATH: 07/24/2001
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 4  SITE 3100-A
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

BOAK, ELIZABETH OSBORN

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 05/14/1922
  • DATE OF DEATH: 09/19/1998
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 4  SITE 3100-A
  •  ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
  •  WIFE OF BOAK, JAMES K LCDR US NAVY

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