Generation to Generation

Boyer Scholarship Honors Those That Came Before

The inspiration for the Reverend J Robert Boyer Scholarship Fund started with Kevin Boyer and his desire to honor his father and establish a family legacy. The naming of the fund and the determination of criteria for this scholarship will pass from generation to generation in the Boyer family. The first male heir in the succeeding generation will have opportunity to honor his father.

Robert Boyer grew up in the Church of the Brethren. From the time he was a young boy, he had a passion to become a preacher. He would wander into the woods as a child, stand up on a stump and preach to the squirrels and birds.

Robert left school in the tenth grade but his persistence in pursuing his education led to a bachelor’s degree from McPherson College and a completion of his studies at Bethany Seminary. By the time he and his wife Bernice moved to Bourbon, Indiana, in 1965 they had three sons, Daniel Dean, David Alan, and Kevin Robert. Reverend Boyer served as pastor at the Mount Pleasant Church of the Brethren. He was well known as a passionate speaker and frequently held special services in which he would dress as a Biblical character and deliver his message from that character’s perspective. After a brief time in Washington state in 1971, the family returned to Bourbon the following year and Robert served as pastor of the Blissville Church of the Brethren. Throughout his life his roots remained firmly embedded in the Church of the Brethren. Tragically, on December 2, 1975, he suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 51.

During Kevin’s lifetime the Reverend J. Robert Boyer Scholarship Fund provides a scholarship for a student choosing to pursue a degree in theology or a related field, or a student pursuing a degree in any field who is attending any one of the six Church of the Brethren colleges or universities across the country. While the name of the fund and scholarship criteria will change from one generation to the next, each change will reflect the bond between father and son. And each change will perpetuate a family tradition that engages in a culture of giving.