Dayton Engineer

John Boland ‘42 was a true engineer, and knew that was his passion from an early age.

Recently passing at the age of 103, he lived out this passion until the very end.

“My dad was always fascinated with how things work from when he was really young,” said John’s son, Dennis, “He got permission to tear apart his dad's Model T and he took apart his mom's radio back when he was a kid.”

Born in Dayton, Ohio on September 17, 1920, he was the oldest of six children. As a boy, he met Charles Lindbergh, rode in his father’s Model T and endured the Great Depression. 

In his high school days at Patterson Co-op High School (the John H. Patterson Career Center that permanently closed in 2009), he worked as a surveyor and laid out water lines for the now city of Fairborn.

“His father had come over from Ireland and he worked as a metal punch press operator,” Dennis said, “So there was a lot of mechanical inclination in the family.”

After graduating from high school, the University of Dayton was a perfect fit — John lived just a block away from campus on Evanston Avenue.

“I'm not sure he ever thought about going anywhere else,” Dennis said.

John graduated from UD in 1942 with a degree in mechanical engineering. His first job was working as a tool engineer on 30 caliber carbine rifles. His career then took a pause — as World War II began in 1943 — and he enlisted into the U.S. Navy. He served on the USS Attu and USS Breton as a catapult and arresting gear officer, including during the Battle of Okinawa.

As the war ended, John was able to go back to school and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1947 with a master’s degree in engineering and heating and air conditioning. His thesis on air duct design remains the industry standard.

“The reason he got into HVAC was because Brother Andy, his professor at UD and his academic adviser, had recommended going into HVAC because it was an up and coming field,” Dennis said.

His career spanned 40 years in the heating and air conditioning industry, including 30 years at Trane Heating & Air Conditioning. His work at Trane spanned from working on designs of all new residential heating and cooling systems, boilers and hospital incinerators to new product development and competitor analysis.

From 1963-1965, he was listed in “Who’s Who in Engineering,” a repository book of U.S. engineers.

After retiring in 1987, he spent his years attending daily Mass at his parish, running, traveling, volunteering and collecting rocks, minerals and fossils. He and his wife were charter members of the Coulee Rock Club and Mid American Paleontology Society.

“Growing up, we would pick up rocks and we would ask Mom and Dad what kind of rocks they were. He got interested in it, partly from us but mostly from my mom. It was consuming for our whole family,” Dennis said, “We would travel to all different parts of the country looking at rocks and picking up rocks. He really had a deep interest in it and had a very inquisitive mind.”

He never lost his inquisitive mindset and passion for engineering.

“He would sit in church and would be calculating the airflow in the church area. He would listen and say ‘Oh, it sounds like those bearings need to be replaced in the air conditioning unit’,” Dennis said.

John’s passion for engineering didn’t end with him — his granddaughter, Dennis’ daughter, is a mechanical engineer working for Lockheed Martin.

John passed away in Wisconsin on Oct. 14, 2023 at the age of 103. He leaves behind four children, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.