Two-thirds of a century behind the wheel

When he played his freshman year in what is now the Old Gym Playhouse, Hans Boeving said he slid under the curtain then dribbled down court, dunked the ball and then ran outside the door.

“They had to wait for me to come back,” said the former Tiger, who stood 6-feet, 6-inches at the time. That’s when the applause erupted.

Born in Germany, Boeving came to Nevada when he was 11 with his mother, Anne, who married Harry Wennhold in 1953. 

He attended the old Minden grammar school on Mono Avenue and was a head taller than the next tallest student, who happened to be Arnold Settelmeyer.

“When I see those pictures,” he said. They’re kind of funny.”

He attended Douglas County High School in Gardnerville, which is now the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center.

“My daughter says I’m a relic because my high school is a museum now,” he said.

Last month, Boeving gave up the commercial drivers license he received in high school to drive school buses for the district.

“I drove from 1956 to 1959 and was paid a dollar a day, which was big money back then,” the 81-year-old said on Tuesday. 

Bus driver wasn’t his first job, though. When he was 12, he drove while he was working for a quarter an hour for the C.O.D. Garage, according to his daughter.

His height made him a natural for the Tiger basketball squad, and he took full advantage, setting records that stood for years.

Boeving and Dale Bohlman were on the 1959 Class A Championship team. The squad went 19-4 that season and on Feb. 28, 1959, in the old Douglas County High Gym, brought down the undefeated Humboldt County Buckaroos 61-52.

Boeving’s height and skills resulted in a full-ride basketball scholarship to the University of San Francisco. 

The school was coming off the Bill Russell years and had a new gym and auditorium.

After graduating in 1964, Boeving was recruited by CalFarm Insurance, and as a young man of 25, he had an expense report and a company car. 

“I was in heaven,” he said. “I worked for them for 10 years before starting a construction company for 30 years.”

He credited Brooks Park for showing him the ropes when it came to business.

“He knew how to talk to these guys in the business world,” Boeving said. “People would say nothing shakes you and you always have a plan. I had a great teacher.”

He lived in Danville for years where he and wife Barbara had a beautiful home and he had a successful business, thanks to his insurance background.

“The insurance background adjusters knew me and they knew I knew how things worked and they would tell me to fix something and send them a bill,” he said. “I was very lucky to have quite a following in those days.”

When he and Barbara moved to Pleasantview in 1999, he remained in the driver’s seat, helming farm equipment for the Parks, driving for a trucking outfit from Sparks, where he got an endorsement for double and triple trailers.

One of his classmates recommended him for the test and the test drive. He drove for another outfit in Mound House and then got work for the Tahoe Transportation District.

He wrapped up his career transporting seniors for Douglas County during the coronavirus outbreak, traveling some of the same routes he had as a 16-year-old driving a school bus.

“The seniors loved my stories,” he said. “When I told them stuff, they said I ought to write a book.”

In mid-January he decided it was time to turn in his commercial license. 

“You’ve got to be pretty sharp to drive an 80,000-pound rig that’s 118 feet long,” he said. “I realized that I was slowing down.”

Though he isn’t slowing down much. 

He rides his bicycle from his home across the Valley to Genoa and back.

“I’ve been very lucky to be able to challenge my body and mind,” he said. “The doctor looked at me the other day and said ‘for a guy 60 years old, you’re in fantastic shape.’”

His wife of 47 years Barbara Boeving died in 2012, but Boeving’s son, Bob, lives in Gardnerville, and just took a new job with a software company. 

Daughter Betty Ann Hagenau works with the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition to prevent human trafficking. His brother is longtime bailiff and volunteer firefighter George Wennhold.