Dennis Alan Boles

Obituary of Dennis Alan Boles

1937-2024

Dennis was born at home on Fordway Rd., Derry, NH on Sept. 15, 1937 to Frances and Ellery Boles. They had horses, cows, and chickens on their farm and rode into town in a horse and wagon in those days. He was a beloved son and their 3 other sons, Ralph, Bryan, and Curtis filled out the rest of the family.

All attended school in Derry and went to Pinkerton Academy, the local high school. Dennis worked part-time at the local bakery as a teenager. 

 Dennis liked music back in those younger years. Mostly Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Willie Nelson were his favorites. As a teen he even styled his hair like Elvis, with a wave and ducktails. In the Marines that disappeared, but later he revived the look and was quite proud of his wavy hair.

He joined the U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 18 and went to Basic Training in Parris Island, SC; then was stationed at Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, NC for a while.

He was selected to go to the Marine Barracks at 8th and I Streets, Washington, DC, to be part of the Presidential Guard, maybe because he was 6’2” and very handsome says his wife, Peggy. Anyhow, while there, he drove buses to transport the Marine Band to events and the Marine Silent Drill Team. On Tuesdays, during the Eisenhower Administration, he drove the harp and harpist to the front door of the White House for Mamie Eisenhower’s famous Tea Parties, getting to wheel the harp into the front rooms of the White House.  

He met Peggy while on duty with the band, who were playing for the Towson Teachers’ College Homecoming game in 1957. She was a student at Towson at the time and many of the girls were enthralled with all the handsome Marines, who were invited to dinner after their performance at the football game’s halftime. 

They married in Sept., 1959 after Dennis left the Marines and became a baker for Safeway Baking Company in Washington, DC. They lived in an apartment in Adelphi, MD while Margaret finished college at The University of Maryland. During that time, sons Kevin and Steven were born. When Melinda came along, they determined that they needed a bigger place and bought a home in Lanham, MD. All this while Dennis became a lifelong Terrapin fan and the couple attended many football games.

Later they became Terrapin Club members and began attending basketball games as well. Bradley was born while they were still in their first house on 75th Ave. in Lanham where they had a nice yard for their children to play in.

One winter Dennis journeyed up to Chicago to attend the American Baking Institute so that he could become a supervisor at the Safeway Baking Company, which had moved out to Landover, MD. He always enjoyed working for Safeway and made many friends there. They had a summer company softball team and Dennis was the pitcher sometimes and the catcher other times. Peggy and the children always enjoyed watching the men play ball.

Dennis was also a loyal, lifelong Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots fan, watching all the games on TV, as many New Englanders do. The family made frequent trips up to Derry to visit family, enjoy the great summer picnics and times at Rocky Pond with Dennis’ brother, Ralph and his wife, Irene and their children. Dennis always enjoyed fishing off the dock at Rocky Pond in the summer. 

As the family grew in size, they needed a larger house, so they moved out to Mitchellville, MD where Dennis had a nice, big yard to care for. He enjoyed riding around on his lawnmower and caring for the yard. He liked to boast about having the greenest lawn on the block. The boys joined The Boy Scouts and Dennis became the treasurer of their troop, going with them on many summer camping trips. He especially enjoyed the C&O Canal trips. Perhaps that is where he began his interest in birding. He loved to feed the birds and watch them, especially in the wintertime. He later became an avid birder and the couple went on many birding trips with the Audubon Society from Maine, to North Dakota and down to Florida. 

He also attended many Florida Pinkerton Academy Reunions down in Florida, which his mother attended as well. Those were very happy trips, as were the reunions up in New Hampshire with his classmates from the Academy, as we watched the high school grow into a wonderful campus with excellent sports teams.

As life goes on, so does Dennis’ story of his volunteer work with the Greenbelt Lions Club: His favorite part of the Christmas Holidays was the Christmas with Santa Pancake Breakfast when he worked tirelessly in the kitchen getting the batter ready, setting up the sausages to go into the oven right on time, Then, in the morning, making the pancakes for all the Greenbelt families who came and others who joined in the fun with the Boy Scouts, lots of Lions, and Eleanor Roosevelt High School helpers to set up tables, take photos, take tickets, sit on Santa’s lap, and enjoy the day on the first Saturday of December. This is something that we will always remember as he would come out of the kitchen to see the room full of people enjoying their breakfasts and each other.

Lion Dennis also started the Christmas Gift Wrap and managed to run it for many years training students from Roosevelt and fellow Lions to wrap gifts neatly and crisply for many people who became regulars at the Beltway Plaza Lions Gift Wrap. He never could have done all those many hours without the help of his many fellow Lions, their spouses, friends and the Roosevelt students. Dennis enjoyed the comradery of the Club and served for many years as the Eye Glass Chair and as a Director.

Each day Dennis started by reading the Washington Post’s sports pages, then cruised through the rest of the paper to the crossword puzzle, which he often did with pen and later changed to pencil as the week went on. He enjoyed summer competitions with his brother, Ralph, to see who could finish first. Dennis was the master at Sudoku as well, doing the multi-challenge in Sunday’s newspaper.

Many were the evenings when youngsters and their elders were playing pickup basketball on Cleary Lane. Dennis loved these evening outings as did many of the Cleary, Boles, and Groves youngsters. Summer nights would find Fr. Bill Cleary, Jimmy and Bobby Cleary and Dennis playing basketball under the streetlights with Charlie and Steve Cleary, Brad Boles and others who lived on Cleary Lane, or happened to be visiting. It was all in good fun, but very energetic games. 

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Dennis's name to the Greenbelt Lions Club or your favorite charity.