- Date Of Birth: October 28, 1928
- Date Of Death: March 3, 2017
- State: Indiana
On the morning of March 3, 2017, a truly good and gentle man joined Jesus and the rest of heaven’s unspeakable joy!
Dr. Richard Clayton Boling Sr., 88, born on Oct. 28, 1928, to Kenneth and Francis Boling, quickly took on the gentle love modeled by his dad, Kenneth.
He grew up in Indianapolis, a good student, altar boy, and athlete. He attended Cathedral High School and was an Indiana Central Greyhound where he studied the sciences and played tennis. He was also part of a rag-tag football league that created bruises and friends.
He made everyone he met feel like family and was a shining example of unconditional love and inclusiveness. One friend, Al Mendez, introduced Richard to his future wife, Joanne. “Dick”, as all of his many wonderful friends knew him, went to Indiana University School of Medicine and began to court Joanne Elizabeth Bullock. Due to a demanding schedule and a short two-day leave, Joanne and Dick were married the day after Christmas.
Following medical school, he served in the U.S. Army at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. Ophthalmology residency in Indianapolis followed his discharge from the Army.
With the births of their children, Kathy, Rich, Mark, and Jennifer, his future as a family man was insured.
Another of his friends from medical school, Glen Hawkins, suggested Dick come up and visit the South Bend/Elkhart area as a potential place to make their home and start his medical practice. It didn’t take long to fall in love with the area and its people. Elkhart is home!
For 50 years, “Doc Darling”, as Joanne called him, joyfully served the families of Michiana’s eye care needs. He was best known by his patients as “Dr. Blue Eyes”. When a patient would compliment his appearance, his famous retort was, “well there’s nothing wrong with your eyes.”
On countless occasions, he met emergencies at the ER or in the office making a real difference in their future sight. From eye muscle surgeries to cataracts and everything in between, he was a true renaissance ophthalmologist; he could do it all and with a gentle hand. Speaking of “hands,” Doc Darling had the softest anyone ever felt. Dick insisted he did “tough manual labor” tarring roofs in his youth, but there were certainly no callouses to verify!
During their 67-year marriage, Dick and Joanne loved spending time with friends, traveling, singing around the piano, playing cards and playing golf. Dick loved his Horseradish Club Thursdays and was always the best smelling guy in the room.
He is survived by his four children, Kathy (Bruce), Rich (Babette), Mark (Monique) and Jennifer (Dan); his 14 grandchildren, Krista, Marissa, Katie, Ashley, Whitney, Hayley, Mackenzie, Ronisha, Drew, Christopher, Michael, Matthew, Zachary, and Madeline, also five great-grandchildren.
A doctor, a friend, a doting Bappaw, a loving father, husband and Christ follower, there were so many facets to this diamond of a man. He was well-loved and his life was well-lived. He will be missed.
