BOARDMAN SCHOLARSHIP CREATED

The John L. Boardman Memorial Scholarship Fund has been established at Southeast Missouri State University.

Members of the Downtown Merchants Association, other businesses and friends headed a campaign to endow the scholarship in memory of the late John Boardman, an architect who made many contributions to his profession and to the community.

The scholarship has been established for students interested in pre-architecture or in the fine arts.

To be fully endowed, the scholarship requires $10,000, which is about 90 percent funded.

As of July 4, the scholarship had more than $9,000, said downtown businessman William Dunn, sales manager of Rhea Optical. Dunn has been a leader in the scholarship campaign.

Boardman, a Cape Girardeau architect who designed hundreds of buildings and supervised renovations of hundreds of historic structures, during his more than 40-year career, died Dec. 10.

Boardman, 73, had imprinted his distinctive architectural style in Cape Girardeau, and particularly in the downtown area.

"If there was a Mr. Downtown Cape Girardeau, it would be John Boardman," said C.P. McGinty Jr., owner of C.P. McGinty Jewelers Inc., and a member of the group conducting the scholarship campaign.

Boardman also designed the shrine to Princess Otahki at Trail of Tears State Park. The shrine is a quiet tribute to the legendary Otahki princess and the tragic migration of the Eastern Cherokees to Oklahoma in 1838.

Friends who knew Boardman said he had a gift for taking older spaces and designing contemporary quarters.

"He was a master at tying the old with the new, bringing buildings back to the architectural promise they deserved," said Charles Hutson of Hutson Furniture.

Boardman designed scores of distinctive homes in Cape Girardeau and was also the architect for many church designs throughout Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri.

At the time of his death, Boardman was in the midst of several major projects, including the Aquamsi Bluff Townhouses on South Spanish Street.

Boardman renovated three structures in the 100 block of Independence on the southwest corner of Independence and Spanish that now houses the gallery of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. Earlier, he remodeled the historic Hoche House at William and Spanish and the structure that now houses Celebrations Restaurant on Bellevue.

Boardman, a Sikeston, Mo., native, graduated cum laude in his architectural class at Iowa State University. He entered the Iowa school following discharge from the Navy.

The first Boardman Memorial Scholarship will be available fall 2001.

Funds may be sent to Boardman Scholarship, Southeast Missouri University Foundation, One University Plaza, MS 7300, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63701.