Friends of Ben Boniface set out on a memorial kayak and tubing run along Deer Creek Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Joe Gray, Homestead Publishing / June 26, 2012) |
Dozens of friends of the late Benjamin "Ben" Boniface gathered at one of his and their favorite spots Saturday afternoon in an impromptu memorial to the 20-year-old son of Harford County Council President Billy Boniface and his wife, Barbara, who died suddenly earlier in the week.
One person present said at least 100 young people congregated along the shores of Deer Creek off Harmony Church Road, not far the Chuchville tank testing grounds, to remember their friend, who was killed June 18 when he drove his pickup truck through a fence on the family's Darlington horse farm.
The group went on a memorial kayak and tubing run down the creek, where they often spent time with Ben Boniface, whose death has shocked many people across Harford County.
The Deer Creek gathering occurred the day after Mr. Boniface was laid rest in Darlington Cemetery near the Susquehanna River, following a well attended funeral Mass at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Aberdeen Friday morning. The procession of vehicles from the church to the cemetery stretched for several miles, a family friend who attended both services said.
Benjamin Boniface was a 2010 graduate of the John Carroll School in Bel Air and was living and working on the family's farm, while studying to be an arborist, according to his family.
His father was elected county council president in 2006, in his first try for public office, and was re-elected without opposition in 2010.
