PHOTOS by Kathy Dickson and Jamie Nygaard. Click to enlarge and view at your own pace.

By Benji Bergstrand

Each fall for nearly eight decades, Dick Boehr has reached for his Messiah song book to begin preparations to sing George Frideric Handel’s venerated oratorio performed annually at Bluffton College/Bluffton University. It never gets old for him. “As soon as you touch that Messiah book and feel how worn it is, you kind of get an emotional high,” Boehr said. “Things start to come back to you about the whole story of Christ’s birth and resurrection.” 

The plain black book, well-worn and clearly well-loved, isn’t even Boehr’s first Messiah book. During his incredible over three-quarters of a century run, Boehr estimates that he has worn out three previous Messiah song books. His first book would have come from his father John or his Aunt Elizabeth.

 It was Elizabeth who first led the family to Bluffton when she moved to become a professor at Bluffton College in 1918, and she started the family tradition of singing in the Messiah. Boehr recalls his aunt’s musical interests fondly. “If there would’ve been singing, she would’ve sung it,” he said.

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The Messiah has been performed at Bluffton since 1902, and as far as Dick knows the Boehrs have had a family member singing in every Messiah since Elizabeth started the streak in 1918. Boehr himself has only missed twice in the last 77 years and both would have to be considered excused absences. 

Boehr and his late wife Corrine had two sons born in December. One of the sons, Doug, was born a couple days after the Messiah. Boehr made it to this performance. The other son, Tim, was born a couple of days before the Messiah and Boehr stayed home to be with his wife and new son. 

The choice wasn’t difficult. “If you have a baby boy and he’s just been delivered, that baby boy takes prominence,” Boehr said with conviction. “Why two or three days later you’ll say,  ‘I sure am sorry I couldn’t sing in it this year, but it was a good reason.’”

The only other absence on Boehr’s stellar record wasn’t nearly as joyful. One year he participated in all the practices only to come down with strep throat shortly before the performance. 

Some may wonder if performing the same piece of music seventy-five times could get tedious, but Boehr will quickly set you straight on that point. He has sung under at least 10 different directors over the years and each one is unique. “Every director changes things,” Boehr said. “You don’t get two alike. People think I’ve got this memorized and I say, ‘Oh, ho! Wait a minute. All you’ve got to do is think you have things memorized, and then the director changes things and all of a sudden, you’re not doing well..”

Boehr’s admiration for Handel’s music has also helped keep him singing year after year. According to Boehr, there’s a certain quality present in the Messiah that runs through all of Handel’s work. “As soon as you hear his knack on things you think, ‘Uh-oh, look out! Handel’s coming. Here he comes!’”

Spending so much time with the same piece of music allows Boehr to delve deeper into the work and discover new insights. “It’s challenging and there’s times when it brings a different meaning, and once in a while you get kind of a flashback in your body that says, ‘I never thought of that Christian message quite like that.’”

And there are periods of personal hardship that have brought a new emotional depth to the Messiah for Boehr. “There’s times in my life when I’ve lost a family member and some part in the Messiah will just bring me to tears,” Boehr said. “There will be wording in the Messiah itself that will just stop me cold for a little bit and then I say, ‘Come on, this is a performance,’ and I’ll get squared away and get back to my music.”

Eventually there will come a year, Dick Boehr knows, when it won’t be his hand that pulls the Messiah song book off the shelf. “I’m going to have to probably give it up,” Boehr said. “I don’t know whether I can sing it next year or not.” At age 93, health issues have made it more difficult for him to keep showing up, but he has been able to continue with help from family. “This last year I would not have been able to sing without my Jeff being right beside me.”

He’s not ruling anything out, though and a 76th Messiah is a distinct possibility for him. “Now, whether I’m going to be stronger and a little better next year, we’ll see,” Boehr said. 

And if one year he can’t sing, he plans to be there one way or another. “If they have to, they can put me on a cot and I’ll want to be there listening to the young voices keeping it on.”

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