Christyl Ann Boger

Christyl Ann Boger, beloved wife, daughter, and sister, and a beacon of light and beauty for so many of us, Associate Professor of Ceramics at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, passed away at her home Sunday afternoon, June 17, 2018. She was 59. Chris was a Texas girl, born in El Paso. She was also a Michigan gal, growing up in East Lansing and taking her summers at her grandfather’s family cottage in Elk Rapids, Michigan. She was also a Bloomington resident and an associate professor of fine art (ceramics) at Indiana University. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Miami University and took her Master of Fine Arts at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, moving quickly to summer resident artist and instructor at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana in 2000. She was chosen as an Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellow at the Clay Studio in 2001, the same year she began her career at Indiana University as a visiting artist, and was chosen as a 2003 NCECA Emerging Artist. Chris was visiting artist and then instructor at the Oxbow School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chris also accepted an invitation to be a Summer Artist in Residence at the International Ceramic Research Center, Skaelskør, Denmark, in 2007, where she built work in collaboration with her friend and colleague Nikki Blair, associate professor of ceramics at U. North Carolina Greensboro. Chris was chosen for the 2009 Staged Stories show at the Renwick Craft Gallery in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. Images of her work were often chosen as representative of the entire field of ceramics and were displayed on banners outside such venues as the Sculpture Objects and Functional Art conference held in Chicago and New York. She touched so many lives in so many ways that it is difficult to capture her in words. She will be sorely missed. Chris is survived by her husband, John Burgoon, and her step-children, Amanda Burgoon-Skelton of Santa Clara, and Katrina Burgoon, Eli Burgoon, and Sara Pfister, all of Bloomington, Indiana; her mother Marilyn Boger and Dick DeVine of Haslett, Michigan; her father and step-mother, Robert and Carolyn Boger of East Lansing, Michigan; her three sisters and brothers-in-law, Cherie and Alan Baskins of Novi, Michigan, Paula and Eliot Payson of Littleton, Colorado, and Laurie and Rob Houghton of Chicago; her step-brother Christopher Boyd and his wife, Lisa, of Rockford, Michigan, and step-sister Catherine Goldhaber and husband, David, of Chicago; step-brother Jeff DeVine, of Lansing; nieces Kelsey Baskins, Lindsey Payson, and Sarah Payson; nephews Michael Baskins and Tyler Payson. She is also survived by many friends and colleagues in the IU School of Art, Architecture, and Design, most notably her colleagues in ceramics, Tim Mather, Malcolm Mobutu Smith, and Chase Gamblin. She leaves behind countless friends, former students, and neighbors who loved her. A memorial service will be held for Chris this Sunday, June 24, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., at Allen Funeral Home, 4155 South Old State Road 37, Bloomington, Indiana, 47401. Chris Boger was deeply dedicated to her students. In lieu of flowers, please consider directing a gift to the Christyl Boger Memorial Award in Ceramics, Indiana University Foundation, P.O. Box 6460, Indianapolis, IN 46206-6460.

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Christyl Ann Boger

May 30, 1959 - June 17, 2018