Wesley Roger Boese, 84, of Manfred, ND died July 18, 2017 at the St. Aloisius Medical Center Nursing Home in Harvey, ND.

Wesley was born to Louis and Ella (Mennegar) Boese on November 6, 1932 at home on his parents' farm, section 32, Manfred Township. His older brother, Richard, went with horses to get Dr. Matthaei but he couldn't come so Mrs. D. W. Mattaei, his nurse, delivered the baby. Wesley was the youngest of 8 children.

Wesley's family purchased a farm north of Manfred and moved there in 1938. In 1939, he started school in Manfred and graduated from 8th grade in 1947. He helped with the farming and continued with the operation when his dad died January 8, 1953. On January 23, Wesley took the train to Wichita, Kansas and spent a month getting acquainted with a pen pal. Esther Bailey and Wes had been pen pals since the 7th grade—an English assignment in letter writing. He returned home on February 23rd and started planning for the coming farm year. Wesley and Esther continued to correspond by letters and phone and in April, Esther took the bus to Jamestown. Esther lived with Ervin and Evelina Boese in Manfred and worked for the First State Bank of Harvey.

In July, they drove to Kansas to finalize their wedding plans a week prior to their July 26th wedding. They drove home and checked the crops on the way to Manfred. When the fall work was done, they went to Esther's folks in Wichita where Wesley worked in the catalog department at Sears. After the first of the New Year, they returned to North Dakota. June, the first child, was born in 1954. For several winters, they traveled to Kansas for a month or six weeks. Wes worked for the Christmas tree stand a couple of years and another year helped on house construction. Norman was born in 1957 and the trips had to be curtailed when they had children in school.

With a growing family and chickens, cows to milk, a large garden and the farming, they were busy. Mark was born in 1960 and Kevin in 1964. In 1967, as a family they did the janitor work at the Manfred school and worked there until it closed in May of 1973. Esther was Leave Replacement at the Manfred Post Office from the end of 1979 until it closed on October 2, 1992.

The 2002 crop was Wesley and Esther's last harvest. They rented out the land in 2003 and spent some time on the road. The kids had a special gathering in Minnesota for their 50th anniversary where all the family of their four children, their spouses and nine grandchildren and one grand son-in-law were present.

Wesley served on the Manfred Elevator Board and the Township Board and they spent many years working at the Manfred Museum. He was a member of the Church of the Nazarene in Fessenden.

Wesley is survived by his wife Esther, his children June (Jeff) Farias, Norman (Diane) Boese, Mark (Sharla) Boese and Kevin (Tresa) Boese; 9 grandchildren: Jay (Alicia) Farias, Jenae (Kevin-fiancé) Farias, Nathan (Elizabeth) Boese, Caralyn Boese, Jennifer (Ben) Bohnsack, Matthew (Natalie) Boese, Lucas Boese, Tyler Boese, Tanya (Colten) Larson and 8 great- grandchildren: Jackson, Noah, Phoenix, Emma, Blake, Bridget, Heidi and Megan.
Wesley was preceded in death by his parents Louis and Ella and his siblings, Richard, Raymond, Harley, Mildred, Ervin, Luella and Violet.

His funeral will be held Sunday, July 23, 2017 at the Living Stone Chapel in Fessenden. Visitation will be held at 12:00 p.m. with the Funeral Service following at 2:00 p.m. at the Living Stone Chapel, 7th Avenue North, Fessenden, ND. Burial will be at the Hillside Cemetery, Fessenden, ND. Arrangements with Nelson Funeral Home of Fessenden.

Online condolences may be shared at nelsonfuneralhomesnd.com.