Bowling Green State University Athletics
CHESTER L. BOYER, 1946-2004
April 14, 2004 | General
April 14, 2004
Chester L. Boyer, 57, a star football player in high school and college who after a career selling insurance built a business that services commercial swimming pools, died of cancer Sunday in his Monclova Township home.
Mr. Boyer was owner, president, and chief executive officer of Northwest Pools, Inc., of Sylvania Township. He began the business in the early 1980s as Northwest Property Management to offer maintenance services to apartment complexes, said his son Brian, Northwest Pools vice president.
"Before we knew it, we found a knack for fixing pools and forgot about the property management," his son said.
The firm's specialty became pools in commercial or institutional settings - from country clubs, hotels, and resorts to universities, Ys, and Boys and Girls Clubs in Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia. Specialties included filtration systems and computer-programmed chemical systems.
The firm did minimal advertising, instead relying on Mr. Boyer's many contacts from his days selling insurance and his involvement with Bowling Green State University alumni activities.
"That gave him a wide platform to build a business off of," his son said.
Mr. Boyer grew up in Whitehouse and was a 1964 graduate of Anthony Wayne High School, where he was a letter winner in football, in which he was a fullback and defensive end; basketball, in which he was a forward, and baseball, in which he was a catcher. He was student body president his junior and senior years.
He received a football scholarship to BGSU, playing on the team as his father did and his son Lee would. Chester Boyer was a defensive end for BGSU for four years and lettered his last two years. He was a co-captain of the team his senior year. He graduated in 1968.
"He was charismatic," said son Lee, who was a football coach for Sylvania Southview High School. "He was somebody who was extremely driven to succeed in life and determined never to give up."
Mr. Boyer and his wife, Mitzi, married July 1, 1978. She died May 21, 1999. Surviving are his wife, Janice, whom he married March 8, 2002; sons, Scott, Brian, and Lee; sister, Doris Graham; stepdaughter, Mistie Moody, and five grandchildren.
There will be no visitation. Memorial services will be at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in Providence Lutheran Church. Arrangements are by the Peinert Mortuary, Whitehouse Chapel.
The family suggests tributes to the Chet Boyer Memorial Fund, in care of the BGSU Foundation, or the Hospice of Northwest Ohio.
