Charlevoix Historical Society - Charlevoix, Michigan

In April we will be honoring two longtime Society members, Marilyn & Dale Boss, for their years of contribution toward the good of both the Society and the community. Marilyn served as Society president from 1981 to 1983. Beginning in 1985, she began to clip articles, photos, and other items from the Charlevoix Courier for mounting in binders for the Harsha House Museum library, twenty-one invaluable years of reference history. Marilyn recently relinquished responsibility for this project to former museum director Betsy Reynolds.

Also in recent years she wrote a regular column for the Courier on the downtown area as she and Dale remembered it during their years of growing up here, the merchants, residents, buildings, summer people, important events, etc. Then she began a series on who lived where and what they did based on old telephone directories.

Dale, in his turn, will always be remembered as “Mr. Petunia,” the sparkplug behind the city’s floral beautification project that began in May 1982. Hundreds of volunteers plant five miles of 54,240 petunias either side of U. S. 31 on both sides of town in late May. This annual project has brought Charlevoix national recognition and imitation by other communities across the country.

To tend his charges over a three-hour span, Dale rises every day at 4:00 A. M. between Memorial Day weekend and mid-September to take out the “Petunia Limousine” watering truck. He has never missed a watering mission in twenty-five years.

Dale is invited to participate in ten to thirteen parades a year, and has become one of Charlevoix’s most well-known good will ambassadors.

The Boss family also had a major role in the construction of the addition to the Harsha House Museum in 1980 just prior to Marilyn’s presidency.

Join us for a potluck dinner as we salute Marilyn and Dale Boss for all their years devoted to the betterment of Charlevoix. Also bring stories or anecdotes about the two you would like to share.

As requested in the past, bring a dish to pass and a serving utensil if needed, plus your own tableware and silver. We will provide coffee, tea, drinking cups, and napkins. The Depot is equipped with two microwaves, a fridge, and a range and oven for warming up or a little preparatory work.

A morsel of history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1817

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