Jack Boehringer was born June 5, 1930 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Cornell in 1952 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Jack was a sailor, pilot, inventor and philanthropist who never sought the spotlight. He would likely scold us for naming this regatta after him. Considering his lifelong love of both sailing and his alma mater Cornell, establishing the Jack Boehringer ’52 Memorial Regatta is a fitting tribute.
While in college, Jack served in ROTC, rowed competitively on crew and was elected president of his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, as well as president of the Inter-Fraternity Council. Through the years he would serve on Cornell Council and was instrumental in restarting the Cornell Engineering Society. He also served on the Biomedical Engineering team that explored establishing Biomedical Engineering as a course of study at Cornell. Jack attended Cornell on a merit scholarship and wanted to ensure those that shared his dedication and passion for learning would also have the same opportunity to attend Cornell. He and his wife Carol Ballagh Boehringer (Class of ’53) would go on to establish the Boehringer Family Fellowships, supporting students in pursuit of a Master’s Degree in either Systems Engineering or Bio-medical Engineering.
After graduating Cornell, Jack served in the U.S. Army and would eventually use his GI Bill to learn to fly. His beloved Twin Comanche, “Gemini”, would also become a test platform for many of his inventions. He continued to hone his operations management skills while working for Moore Products, Arcos and SPS Industries in the years that followed. He left corporate America in 1968 to form Boehringer Associates, a management consulting firm, with his wife Carol. In 1972, he would also found Boehringer Laboratories, a medical instrument manufacturing company with his friend and fellow competitive sailor, Dr. John Lecky, an anesthesiologist at the Hospital at University of Pennsylvania. Jack’s inventions would result in 45 medical patents being awarded to him that have since saved thousands of people’s lives.
Jack Boehringer ’52 and Gill Boehringer ’55
celebrating after winning the first race
at Comet Internationals, 1950
Jack started his racing career at the age of nine sailing a moth on the backwaters of Stone Harbor, N.J. Like many depression era sailors of that time, he built his own boat, cut his own sails and made much of the hardware used on her, even building the trailer on which they towed her. He competed in his first Comet Internationals here on Lake Cayuga in September of 1947. Jack was only 17, his brother Gill (Class of ‘55) was only 13 at the time. He would say they got “skunked”, but finished 25th out of 72 boats as a junior sailor against the best in the country. Three years later, he would finish third at the age of 20. In 12 attempts, he finished in the top three six times, but it wouldn’t be until 1970 that he would finally win the Comet Internationals while racing in Annapolis, Md. in the same boat that he built nearly 25 years earlier.
Jack ’52 and Bob Boehringer ’81
in Hi Tide Comet Internationals,
Annapolis, Md. - 1970
Jack was a life-long student who never stopped learning and wanting to be better. His boat, “Hi Tide”, was his experimental lab in which he worked to refine her rigging and sails. To make the hull more “slippery” through the water, his crew daughter Barbara Boehringer McConnell (Class of ’79) and son Bob Boehringer (Class of ’81) had the joy of constantly wet sanding her and then right before launching her in the water, coating the hull with a “specially formulated high density polymer”… Ivory liquid soap. How much of this was real science vs. just trying to psych out the competition is not clear, but he did have one clean boat that left a long trail of bubbles where ever he went. Anything that could give him even a slight advantage, he would try. His “innovations” did not always work, but as an engineer, he documented every race he ever sailed. He would capture the wind, tide, course, sail settings as well as tactics used leg by leg to better understand what he could do to improve his speed. Well into his late 70’s, he was still working to improve his performance, even if it was just racing against his grandchildren Brad Boehringer (Dickinson ’13), Christie McConnell (Duke ’14), Mark McConnell (Cornell ’16), Reed Boehringer (Cornell ’16) or Gillian Boehringer (Cornell ’18) in Sunfishes on a back creek… and then he’d teach all what he had learned.
Jack ’52 and Carol Boehringer ’53
Comet Internationals,
Annapolis, Md. - 1970
Jack passed away on March 5, 2013 after fighting a two and one-half year battle with cancer. He was a hardworking, dedicated and compassionate man whose faith guided and comforted him through his final days. He truly left this world a better place.
So in his honor, the Boehringer and McConnell families would like to recognize Jack’s contribution to sailing and the Cornell community by establishing the Jack Boehringer ’52 Memorial Regatta. We are also honored to dedicate this trophy to be engraved with the name of the university that wins the regatta each year. This trophy was originally won by Jack and his brother, Gill in 1951. We hope that all of you find the same joy being on the water that Jack did, but more importantly, that you continuously strive to learn, to grow, to achieve and then give back and leave the world a better place than you have found it.
Sincerely,
Bob '81 and Debbie Boehringer
Lee and Barbara '79 McConnell
