Gaylen H. Boeckel

Gaylen H. Boeckel, 80, of Beulah, passed away on March 1, 2025, in Bismarck, ND.  Services will be held at 10:00 AM CST, Thursday, March 6, 2025, at PrairieView Church of God, Beulah, ND, with Pastor Corey Fifer officiating.  Burial will be at a later date at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, rural Mandan, ND. Visitation will be from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, Wednesday, at Barbot Funeral Home, Beulah.

Gaylen Herman Boeckel was born on December 2nd, 1944, to Elizabeth (Wolf) Boeckel and Herman Boeckel.  He was one of 10 children raised on a farm north of Beulah. It was on that farm that he developed his love of all things outdoors, from riding and training horses to putting up hay.

Gaylen did what many did at that time and joined the Army and was deployed to Vietnam. He was proud of his service and wore the title Veteran with honor. Shortly after he returned from Vietnam he married Carol Kusmenko. The joke was he made it all the way through deployment without getting hurt but ended up in the hospital after the wedding. Mostly due to fatigue but the joke was it was from shock of getting married.

Gaylen worked many jobs, from delivering gas to being a ranch hand, to operating almost every piece of equipment out at Knife River Coal/Dakota Westmoreland, but I think his favorite job was storyteller. He knew no stranger, and if you gave him a minute he’d share a story or 20, most of which were bound to make you laugh!

Gaylen and Carol raised 3 kids, Terry, Teresa and Tonya. They faithfully attended basketball, football and volleyball games. At most of them you would find Gaylen holding various sizes of recording equipment, but at all of them you could hear his robust voice shouting guidance to whichever child was on the court/field.

One of Gaylen’s favorite past times was riding horses. He was a member of the Badlands Trail Riding group for many, many years and attended their fall ride at the Little Missouri State Park until he couldn’t. He loved to tell stories about those rides, and he loved that group of people like family.

Gaylen also loved God. He learned from an early age to put his trust in Him but really gave in to the calling he had felt was on his life to be a pastor when he went into the nursing home. Many times, he prayed for and with other residents and nursing staff. He wanted to make sure they all knew there was only one way to get to heaven!

He is survived by his siblings, Irene Fisher, Gary Boeckel, Fern Schlender and Fay Horn, his children Terry (Yin) Boeckel, Teresa Boeckel, and Tonya (Trent) Eiseman, his grandchildren, David Boeckel, Turner Eiseman and Tysen Eiseman and various cousins, nieces and nephews.

Gaylen was preceded in death by his parents Elizabeth and Herman Boeckel, his siblings, Leonard Boeckel, Leona Reub, Ruth Hausauer, Marjean Boeckel, and Janet Morast, his mother and father-in-law LaVern and Otto Kusmenko, his wife Carol and various cousins, nieces and nephews and in-laws.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the Wounded Warriors or a military charity of your choosing.

Arrangements conducted by Barbot Funeral Home, Beulah and Hazen.

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