r e q u e n t l y Mr s . B o e hm e r r e marked, “My favorite verse is Palm 34:3, ‘0 magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name togeth er,’ and my favorite hymn is, ‘God leads His dear children along.’ ” Now the Lord has led His dear child into His very presence where, with loved ones and friends gone before, she exalts His holy name. On February 23rd she was called Home very unex pectedly following an injury she re ceived when she was struck with a car on the night of January 27th, as she returned from her birthday celebra tion with her son and family in Montebello.
Hers was a rich and full life. Bom January 27, 1885 of godly Swiss Bap tist parents, she was reared strictly and Scripturally. In her home the children not only learned to walk in the ways of the Lord but also to work and study and make something of themselves. Matilda trained as a teacher at Normal College, taught a number of years, then married a Canadian Christian business man and made her home in Kitchener, Ontario. The Boehmer home was a center for missionaries and ministers and Mrs. Boehmer was very active in the Bap tist church, her chief interest being missions and the aged and shut-in.
Then, in the words of the song she loved, God led His dear child “ through great trials” in the loss of a little daughter and son and her husband. But she continued to magnify His name, and He led her to Los Angeles in 1939, the year her husband died. At that very time the Bible Institute was in need of a Superintendent of Women and she gladly accepted the position which she filled for twenty years. Mrs. Boehmer was a real “mother away from home” to the girls, caring for them and counselling them, and as they left for service at home and abroad,; following them with her prayers’-and letters. Her greatest de light was the visits of her girls re turning with their little ones, and giv ing their accounts of what God had accomplished on distant fields. One such girl came home the day of Mrs. Boehmer’s death, and was saddened and shocked by the news, as was all the Institute family. A nephew of Mrs. Boehmer’s, Mr. Harry Hilker, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Bible Insti tute; another nephew, Carlton, at-, tended the school for a time; and a niece, Mrs. Floyd Larson, graduated from BIOLA. Rev. John Boehmer, her son, is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Montebello, California. Mrs. Boehmer was buried in Kitchen er, but a great Memorial Service, at tended by the faculty, friends, staff and students, was held at the Institute on March 5th at which time many tributes were paid to her for her faith ful, loyal and loving service to the hundreds of young women who have attended BIOLA during the last twen ty years. Dr. Samuel H. Sutherland and others told of the wonderful con tribution her life and testimony had made to BIOLA. A Memorial is planned at the La Mirada Campus, new home of the school, and it is be lieved that the most appropriate memorial will be the lounge of the Women’s Dormitory. Any friends who wish to have part in this may mail their gifts to the Boehmer Memorial Fund in care of the Institute. This will be a lovely tribute, but Matilda Boehmer’s real Memorial is in the hearts of her “ girls” around the world who rise up to call her blessed.
Mrs. Boehmer at her desk as the Biola Superintendent of Women.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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