Eastern Michigan University recently lost a former football
coach and two former administrative secretaries.
Danny Boisture, EMU's head football coach from 1967-73,
died May 18. He was 82.
 |
GRIDIRON GREAT: Danny
Boisture, Eastern
Michigan
University's head football coach
from
1967-73, died May 18 at
age 82. He posted a 45-20-3
record for a .669 winning
percentage, the best
by any
coach in EMU history. |
During his tenure, Boisture posted a 45-20-3 record for
a .669 wining percentage, the best by any coach in EMU
history. He led the team to seven consecutive winning seasons,
and also produced the longest unbeaten streak in EMU history
at 13 games during the 1970 and 1971 seasons. The 1971
team finished 7-1-2, which included EMU's first-ever, post-season
bowl game, the Pioneer Bowl against Louisiana Tech. That
team also earned a No. 1 national ranking in the NCAA-College
Division. He coached six EMU players that earned
All-American honors.
"He was hired to take the Eastern Michigan University
football team to the next level of play and prepare the
school for joining the Mid-American Conference," recalled
Jim Streeter, EMU's sports information director who was
sports editor of the Eastern Echo during Boisture's last
year at EMU. "Unlike
his predecessors, Boisture spent the bulk of his recruiting
efforts on a higher caliber player. His recruits were more
widely known regionally and, in some cases, nationally,
as better athletes, and those are the kinds of players
he went after. His teams enjoyed a success at Eastern that
was the best in school history since the early days of
the Elton Rynearson great teams of the 1930s and '40s.
The highlight of Boisture's years was definitely the Pioneer
Bowl and that success helped propel Eastern into the MAC."
Boisture later went on to coach the Detroit Wheels of
the World Football League. He was selected to EMU's Athletic
Hall of Fame in 2005.
Boisture was a standout wide receiver at the University
of Detroit before he entered coaching. He coached four
seasons with the Detroit Catholic League, the last three
at Detroit St. Mary's of Redford. In 1959, he became an
assistant coach at Michigan State University under Duffy
Daugherty and remained the offensive backfield coach there
until 1967, when he became head football coach at EMU.
Boisture served as a Marine in the Pacific Theater during
World War II and was awarded the Purple Heart.
Survivors include his wife, Joan, of 53 years; three sons,
Daniel, Jr., Joseph and Martin; and nine grandchildren.
Rosemary (Patrina) Hines, administrative
secretary in EMU's Admissions Office from 1958-83, died
May 22. She was 68.
Hines graduated from Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti
in 1957 and received her bachelor's and master's degrees
from Eastern Michigan University.
Hines worked at EMU for 25 years, serving as administrative
secretary in the admissions office before leaving in 1983
to work at Florida Community College, where she retired
in 2001.
"Rosemary was the consumate professional. She was
supportive of all the staff in admissions and was always
generous with her time and knowledge," said Holly
Smith, executive secretary in the president's office. Smith
started at EMU in 1977 and said she took over for Hines
in admissions when Hines left EMU. "It was a real
loss for EMU when she left us for new pursuits in Florida."
Hines was active in many organizations and served on several
boards, including the Friends of the Jacksonville Public
Library Inc., Florida Library Association, St. Augustine
Genealogical Society, Michigan Association of Retired School
Personnel-First Coast Jacksonville Chapter and Delta Kappa
Gamma-Alpha Tau Chapter. She also was a past matron of
the Ypsilanti chapter #119, Order of the Eastern Star.
She was a member of St. Johns Episcopal Cathedral.
Survivors include her husband, Harold R. Hines; a
brother and sister-in-law, Russell and Catherine Hines,
of Pinckney; three cousins, Robert Bauman, of Lake Isabella,
Calif.; Mara Krause, of Dexter; and Diana Gibson, of Boulder
City, Nevada; and several nieces, nephews, great-nieces
and great-nephews.
Contributions in her memory may be made to the Community
Hospice Foundation, 4114 Sunbeam Rd., Suite 101, Jacksonville,
Fla. 32257.
Ruth Hollister Goddard, former secretary to the Michigan
State Normal College (now EMU) president, died May
7. She was 97.
In 1940, Goddard was secretary to then-president John
M. Munson.
Goddard received her undergraduate degree from the University
of Michigan in 1931 and received a master's degree in mathematics
there the following year. Because women found it difficult
to find employment in their chosen field in those days,
Goddard attended Cleary College and received her secretarial
science degree from there in 1934.
She worked for The Michigan Municipal League from 1934-39.
She then worked one year at Michigan State Normal College
before working as secretary to the editor at The Ann Arbor
News from 1941-43. From 1943-45, she conducted war work
for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Tulsa, Okla. From
1945-65, she worked as an engineering draftsman for McNamee,
Porter and Seeley of Ann Arbor.
She married Fred C. Goddard in 1960 and they had 13 years
together until he died in 1973.
Survivors include a sister, Marian H. Dieckman, of Joplin,
Mo.; four nieces and one nephew.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name
to Leader Dogs For The Blind or The Humane Society of Huron
Valley.
