By: E&P Staff Don Boxmeyer, who chronicled the ordinary Joes and outsize characters of St. Paul, Minn., for more than 35 years, died Sunday at age 67, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
Boxmeyer had suffered health problems soon after his 2002 retirement from the Pioneer Press that included organ transplants and heart surgeries, according to an appreciation the PiPress Web site by David Hawley. The cause of death as respiratory heart failure.
Boxmeyer's entire journalistic career was spent at the Pioneer Press and the Dispatch, which was merged into its sibling in 1985.
Even after his retirement, he continued to contribute columns. His last was published in June.
"Don Boxmeyer could unfold a story so that it sounded as natural as a chat in a neighborhood coffee shop or tavern," Hawley wrote.
One example was a 1998 column about "Bobo" Betts, who Hawley described as a "colorful St. Paul street brawler and gambler" who worked for a while as an ambulance attendant. Boxmeyer opened the column by describing Betts on a long emergency run from Duluth to the Twin Cities this way:
"No one remembers the name of the burn victim, but he was all wrapped up in gauze like a mummy. His eyes weren't covered, though, and the poor guy did have one free hand, so Bobo dealt him in."
Boxmeyer is survived by his wife, Kathy, daughter Diana Berg, and sons Chris and Erik. Funeral arrangements were pending Monday afternoon.
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