They were wed while on break from working a track meet. Two years later, while in the midst of officiating at another Junior Olympic meet in California, they were married. Laurie Boemker, a native of Columbus, Ohio, moved to Rhode Island with her new husband, and the couple have been fixtures at local high school and collegiate track meets ever since. Their combined curriculim vitae includes working meets both at the national and Olympic level. Track and field is a compendium of events within the larger context of a meet, so certain officials zero in on certain things.
Expertise is interchangeable.
In high school track, a starter at a dual meet one day may be called upon to run the high jump the next. Those kind of things. Ron Boemker, who has been a track officials for 25 years, has at one time or other performed most of those functions. A Brown University graduate, he coached track at East Greenwich and Cranston East high schools, and still coaches the Thunderbolt Track Club, which he founded 22 years ago. A Master level official like her husband, Laurie Boemker also coached track in Ohio, and was drawn to officiating.