Charles William Boas, a college geography professor, author and railroad historian who abandoned academia in midcareer for a clown's face of pancake makeup and the thrill and roar of the big top, died Tuesday of myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood disorder, at his home in Stewartstown, Pa. He was 76.
Born and raised in Harrisburg, Pa., Dr. Boas served in the Navy in the Pacific theater during World War II after his high school graduation and later as a research analyst in Washington during the Korean War.
He earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1949 from Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., and his master's degree in 1950 from the University of Virginia and doctorate in 1956 from the University of Michigan - both in geography.
Dr. Boas was an assistant professor at Michigan State from 1956 to 1961, when he left the halls of academe, sold his home, packed up his family and hit the sawdust trail with the Penny Brothers Circus.
For the next six years, Dr. Boas fulfilled a childhood dream of running away with the circus and performing as a clown. In addition to clowning, he held various administrative positions with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Carson & Barnes, and Sells-Floto circuses.
He came off the road in 1967, when his children needed a permanent address in order to attend school. He settled in York, Pa., and the next year returned to his academic life to begin a 23-year engagement on the faculty of York College, teaching his specialty of urban geography.
However, the sounds and smells of the circus never quite left Dr. Boas, who fulfilled another dream of becoming a circus owner. He established Boas Brothers Circus, and after the show nearly went broke took on a partner and fellow circus fan, the Rev. L. David Harris, and changed its name to Circus Kirk - from the Scottish word for church.
Their crew and cast of tumblers, acrobats, clowns, high-wire walkers and a "rubber woman" were strictly high school and college students, and the three-ring tent show had a religious element. Traveling with several trucks and buses, the show toured during summers throughout the Middle Atlantic and New England.
"Circus Kirk is like no other circus in the world," said a 1971 article in the old Sunday Sun Magazine. "Its director is a college professor. Every performer is a high school or college student. The boss rigger is a Harvard man, the head electrician is preparing for the ministry. The fire-eater is working for a law degree, and the girl with the dog act is a Bryn Mawr English major."
Due to a changing business climate, Dr. Boas decided to close the circus in 1978, family members said.
He retired from York College in 1991, but continued lecturing on his specialties, which also included North American regional geography, North American rail systems and historical geography.
In recent years, he was an Elderhostel instructor and regularly lectured at Towson University and the B&O; Railroad Museum, and aboard Cunard Line cruise ships. He also served as general passenger agent for the Stewartstown Railroad Co., a tourist railroad.
Before his death, he had completed the book Maryland's Railroad Resorts: Hotels, Boarding Houses, and Excursion Parks, 1875-1935, which will be published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
"He was a self-taught historian who learned as he went along. He had fun doing the research as only a lover of the subject would have," said Robert J. Brugger, regional editor at the Hopkins press. "He was a wonderfully bright, ambitious and a naturally curious man who loved historic archaeology and the business of tourism in which the railroads competed."
Dr. Boas' marriage to the former Kathleen Lawrence ended in divorce.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Stewartstown Presbyterian Church.
Survivors include his wife of 17 years, Frances Ann Allison; a son, Charles L. Boas, and three daughters, Laura C. Boas, Mary C. Boas and Elizabeth A. Boas, all of Austin, Texas; a brother, Constantine F. Boas of Salisbury, Conn.; two stepsons, Daniel G. Replogle of Washington and Harry A. Replogle of Reisterstown; a stepdaughter, Mary Catherine Replogle of Frederick; and nine grandchildren. Another stepson, David R. Replogle, died this year.