Waupaca family has decades of public service

By James Card

Last month when Joyce Boyer told the Waupaca County Board she was going to retire, they had to acknowledge it by a vote.

Everyone accepted her resignation and voted, “Yea,” except for one member that voted, “Nay.” The vote was a remark for the record: he said he didn’t want to see her go.

Boyer became a board member when her husband, Jim Boyer, died in December 2012. They had been married 52 years. Jim had served only part of his two-year term.

Her children, Deb, Robert and Tom, persuaded her to complete the remainder of her late husband’s term.

“I did it because my kids kept saying, ‘Mom, just do this one term. That’s all you have to do,’” said Joyce.

She was sworn in as a county board supervisor in April 2013. She found that her tenure on the county board helped the grieving process and she threw herself into issues that were important to her and the community.

During her nine years on the board, she was known for asking questions.

Her very first vote was “no” after she did some detective work and learned that the state policy the county board was voting on had been taken out of a proposed bill. Therefore, voting on the subject was empty gesture.

Destined for Waupaca

The Boyer family ended up in Waupaca because of an automotive malfunction. It wasn’t the car of Jim and Joyce but of their grandparents.

In the 1940s the grandparents were on their way to Michigan. Their car stalled in Waupaca and they ended up staying the night.

By the time they left, they bought a cottage on a lake. They eventually built another cottage on the same property and family members would come up for summer vacations.

Years later, Jim and Joyce were living on the south side of Chicago with three young kids. Jim worked as a plumber and he drove his boat to work on Lake Michigan because it was faster than driving a car in the heavy traffic.

That area was changing and all of their neighbors were moving to the outskirts of the city but Joyce didn’t want to move to the suburbs.

“If it’s going to be a small town it has to be Waupaca,” said Jim.

They moved to Waupaca in 1967. Joyce’s parents thought they were going to the end of the earth.
Jim sold his boat to make a down payment on their new house.

One day, after the Boyers moved in and the kids were playing upstairs, they were in the living room and Joyce said, “What did we do? We don’t know anybody.’”

A half hour later there was a knock on the door. The neighbors across the street stopped by to introduce themselves. A little bit later, the next-door neighbors stopped in.

And that’s how it all started: there were block parties and boys played baseball in the street. This was before many streets in Waupaca were built and the kids made paths through the fields and woods to each other’s homes.

“We just joined everything we could do,” said Joyce. T

hey joined the Lions Club, the Jaycees, St. Mary Magdalene Church and were involved in youth sports and activities.

Jim owned and operated Boyer Plumbing and for four months when the owner of the Rosa Theater was shorthanded, he ran the film projector because he always wanted to know how it worked.

He wrote a boating column called the “Skipper’s Wheel” for the newspaper. Boyer later became a police officer and while attending the city council meetings, became more interested in public service.

Serving the community

Jim Boyer became involved deep in the Waupaca community when he served as an alderman for six years. In 1986 he was elected mayor of Waupaca and held this position until 1994.

During this period, the city underwent many changes with a large amount of new construction of public facilities.

“We were lying in bed and we heard the sirens going out past our door out to Highway 10. He was just fuming. It turns out kids were killed,” said Joyce. “The next day he wrote to the governor and said something has to be done. He was so furious those kid were killed.”

This happened in 1991. At the time Highway 10 had only two lanes. The slogan at the time was “Fix or condemn Highway 10.”

When Gov. Tommy Thompson received Boyer’s letter, he directed the Department of Transportation to look into the high number of auto fatalities and put in motion the construction of a four-lane highway with safer exits and bypasses.

After his stint as a mayor, he ran for as a candidate for state representative and lost. He served on the Waupaca City Council for four years and served as a County Board Supervisor from 2008 until his death. Boyer Park on 502 Granite Street is named after him.

“He always told us this city welcomed us with open arms and it’s our turn to give back,” said his daughter, Deb Boyer Fenske.

His commitment to public service rubbed off on her and she served on the city council while her father was mayor.

“I remember my dad saying if you don’t like it, change it! But don’t just sit there and complain,” said Boyer Fenske.

It was sometimes awkward and they sometimes disagreed. She once told her mother: “I am not angry at my father, but I sure am mad at the mayor!”

She met her husband Steve Fenske at a city council meeting and he was first to broadcast city council meetings on live television.

Spry and sharp-witted at the age of 81, it’s now time for Joyce Boyer to step down. Between her and husband and her daughter they have over 50 years of service to the city and county.