Howard University Athletics is mourning Sean D. Boynes, a three-time alum who died Thursday, April 2 of complications from covid-19. Boynes died after working on the frontlines as a pharmacist, the Howard Bison reported. He was 46.
Known affectionately as “Bump-N-Run,” the Bison reported Boynes was an instrumental part of HU’s football team from 1991 to 1993. He was a member of the “legendary squad” that went undefeated in 1993 to attain the university’s first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) title and National Black College Championship, the report continued.
He graduated with triple degrees including a bachelor’s in biology (1995), master’s in exercise physiology (97) and PharmD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration (2002).
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A native of Silver Spring, Maryland, Boynes graduated form Gonzaga High School. In addition to attending Howard and helping start the pharmacy at AbsoluteCare health clinic in Greenbelt, Boynes served four years in the U.S. Air Force, reported The Washington Post.
His wife Nicole said Boynes was a fun-loving family man who worked hard to excel at all things. “Whatever he did, he did 100 percent,” Nicole told the Post.
Despite having asthma, Boynes did not stop working until the day he fell ill because he was the “only pharmacist,” Nicole said.
Boynes’ Celebration of Life memorial service was streamed on Facebook. In his opening comments, a minister identified as Pastor Watley said Boynes’ was a “life well lived and a life that has transitioned too quickly.”
Though she and their two daughters – Sierra and Gabrielle – miss him greatly, Nicole told the Post she takes solace in knowing her husband was doing God’s work.
He “was exactly where he needed to be, doing God’s working, making sure that everyone had access to quality care,” Nicole said.
