David Raymond Bockweg

David Raymond Bockweg, 88, of Latonia, KY, passed away, June 16, 2025, at Hospice of St. Elizabeth, Edgewood, Ky, due to complications from congestive heart failure. He passed away into the arms of Christ in the presence of his family that evening.

Dad was born on July 21, 1936 to Robert and Rose Bockweg. He grew up on 11th Street, four doors from St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Covington, KY where he was deeply formed through the instruction of his teachers, (the Sisters of Notre Dame at St John Grade School), and by his interaction as a server with the Pastor who built the current church, Monsignor Anton Goebel.

In high school, Dad worked as a clerk and delivery boy for Paul Voet and his drug store of the same name, just up the street from St. John Church. Mom came there after choir practice one night and upon seeing Dad told a friend, “I’m going to marry that guy some day.” She kept visiting him there during his evening shifts, often sitting at the soda counter dropping gum wrappers on the floor. As he was sweeping, she would say, “you missed a spot.” They were married June 27, 1959, so they both passed (Mom on March 7, 2025) just shy of their 66th wedding anniversary.

Dad has been asked many times over the years, “What is the secret to a long and happy marriage?” He always answered the same way: “You don’t always have to be right.”

Dad was part of the class of 1954 of Covington Catholic. Out of high school, he worked at Wadsworth Electric Manufacturing Company of Covington, first in the warehouse and then for many years driving the company truck back-and-forth between the two plants; one in Covington, the other in Erlanger.

He also volunteered for decades at the Catholic Children’s Home at the bingo hall down on Madison Ave at Hollywood Hall in the 1950s 60s and 70s. Dad was greatly devoted to St. John the Evangelist church and school volunteering for countless events and activities. He and mom were the bereavement committee there for over a decade. When he retired, the

Notre Dame nuns looked out in the parking lot and said, “Ah Mr. Bockweg, you have a pick up truck.” Thus, after retirement, he was there for decades up to 5 or 6 days a week volunteering at the school and the church. For the grade school, she and dad were most famously known as, “Mr. and Mrs. Pick-A-Stick,” a weekly fundraiser to help supplement tuition for students in need.

As a devoted husband and father of 5 boys, he was the quiet, steady, and humble spiritual leader of the family. Dad didn’t often speak directly to us children to guide us but instead, his actions and deeds seemed to shout to us what the right thing was to do in any situation.

A big treat for his young boys was to meet him at the foot of the 12th street exit off 71/75 around 3:30 pm to catch a ride in the “big truck,” back to the Covington plant on the last run of the day.

Every Sunday when we were young, he would take us all to church, then home where he made a bacon and egg breakfast for the family. Meanwhile, mom would pack the cooler with lunch meat sandwiches and fill the 2-gallon Coleman drink cooler with “Orange Aid,” a concoction of orange juice, water and sugar with lots of ice. Every Sunday if the weather was good, he would take the whole family to a park to hike and play. Sometimes a local park, other times a day trip to a state or national park, but always a park.

When snow came our way in the winter, sled riding on his back in Devou Park was a favorite activity.

Soon after the start of the 1973 oil embargo, we could not afford to pay for gas for the furnace of our small home at 538 Watkins Street. To address this crisis, Dad purchased a Craftsman Homelite 14” chainsaw and “Big Mo,” a large wood-burning stove which was installed in the center room of the home. He then made an agreement with the Krumpleman family managing St John Cemetery. For firewood, we could use any trees in the woods of the back lots to be developed in the future, as long as they were dead – either standing or already on the ground. He will be buried a stone’s throw from where he and his boys once cut firewood to pile into the family station wagon to keep our home warm in the winter months.

Dad always worked to give us a good education. After St John School, we all attended Covington Catholic. Although we took modest but wonderful vacations every year, to visit out of town family and beaches along the way, he sold most of his vacation time back to the company to help pay the tuition at CCH.

Mom and Dad led their family with Christian values, teaching their children the importance of devotion and reliance on the faith, and to love others as themselves. Over the years, this included taking into our home, 4 elderly relatives and Mom’s Down Syndrome brother, Jimmy, to live with the family.

Finally, ask any son and we would likely say, almost anything good and decent in any of us five boys was taught to us by our mom or dad.

Dad did everything through faith and love. Love of family and neighbor drove everything he did which resulted in a richer world for his family and his community. We, as his family, will live on by honoring him with our commitment to faith and the development of self for the benefit of others.

Family and friends are welcome to visit from 4 to 7 pm on Friday June 27th, at Middendorf Funeral Home, 3312 Madison Pike, Ft Wright, KY 41017. A second visitation will be held Saturday, June 28 at 10-11 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 627 W. Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11 a.m., also at St John. Interment at St John Cemetery, Ft. Mitchell, KY. Attendees are welcome to join us for a reception after Mass. You may either go directly across the parking lot to the school hall or join the family at the cemetery and then go to the hall for the reception.

Survivors include his sister Joan Lahrman of Lake in the Hills, IL, five sons David (Laura) Bockweg of Union, KY, Roger (Lisa) Bockweg of Florence, KY, Timothy (Susan) Bockweg of Covington, Gary Bockweg of Taylor Mill, and Andy (Tracy) Bockweg of Burlington, KY. He also leaves behind 12 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to St John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church.

I am also including here a poem written in 1986 by Dad’s nephew Gary Bockweg of Washington D.C. to celebrate Dad’s 50th birthday:

The Migrant

They played in the shade of Devou’s trees made, and they sledded steep Twelfth for fun.

They trod the sod of Goldenrod, and wondered Willow Run.

They all grew up in Lewisburg, in the shadow of St John. They got their start and then they’d part, the first three soon were gone.

The rest of the clan spread cross the land, the West Coast, the East and Great Lakes, but one loyal son of Covington just hammered in his stakes.

He lived for more than twenty years on West 11th Street, but finally felt the wanderlust and jumped up to his feet.

He said, “So long neighborhood it’s really been nice to know ya.” He packed his bags and bride – and moved nearly to Latonia.

But he stayed there just a few short years the river Licking at his lawn. He yearned to be where he could see the steeple of St. John.

So back he went, back to Watkins Street the old neighborhood he knew, but change was fast upon it, with the highway coming through.

And life proved so hard in the city, so burdened with worries and fears, he knew he could not stay forever, he stayed only twenty more years.

So now he lives out past the beltway, where houses are modern and sleek. And he’s never seen around Covington, more than five or six days a week.