Attorney excelled at doing trial work

1/7/2004

Ralph S. Boggs, 86, a longtime partner in the law firm founded in 1911 by his father and a past president of the Maumee Board of Education, died Thursday of ischemic cardiomyopathy in JFK Medical Center, Atlantis, Fla.

Mr. Boggs, of South Toledo and formerly of Maumee, was of counsel most recently with Eastman & Smith. He earlier was a partner in Boggs, Boggs & Boggs Co., with his brother, Howard, and his nephew John Boggs. The firm was founded by Ralph and Howard s late father, Nolan Boggs.

“He was a very good trial lawyer,” his nephew John said. “He knew how to develop a case, appeal to a jury, deal with the opposing counsel, and either secure a satisfactory settlement or roll the dice and come out a winner.”

Mr. Boggs son William, a lawyer in California, said his father “prided himself in his representation of individuals, not corporations. He taught me that it was a service profession that, while very demanding, was very fulfilling.”

Mr. Boggs brother, Howard, died July 19.

Ralph Boggs was a graduate of Waite High School, where he was quarterback on the football team and played golf. He was a 1995 inductee to the City League Hall of Fame.

He was a graduate of Denison University and the University of Michigan law school. He was an FBI agent in Chicago during World War II before joining his father s firm.

Mr. Boggs was a four-time president of the Maumee school board and chairman of the Salvation Army advisory board. He was a former president of Heather Downs Country Club and a 33rd-degree Mason.

Mr. Boggs and his wife, Mary, married Sept. 7, 1940. She died May 21, 1997.

Surviving are his sons, William and Robert; daughter, Sally Boggs Bashore, and seven grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Maison-Dardenne-Walker Mortuary, Maumee, where the body will be after 3 p.m. Friday. Barton Smith Lodge, F&AM, services will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the mortuary.

The family suggests tributes to First Presbyterian Church, Maumee, of which he was a member; Browning Masonic Memorial Home; the Toledo Bar Association Foundation, or a charity of the donor s choice.