New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Parents create scholarship to honor late son
NORTH BRANFORD — Stephanie Boughton and her husband, Edward Boughton Jr., are sitting in the backyard of their North Branford home. Propped on the wicker couch beside them are two posterboards covered with photos of their son, Jonathan Boughton – “Jonny” to friends and family.
It’s just two weeks after the 18-year-old, driving his moped to work in March, got into a fatal crash. His parents, who have set up a scholarship fund in his honor, are sharing memories of him — his smile, his hugs, his hunger to learn how the world worked, his brilliance in mechanics and his plan to take over the family auto shop.
Among the photos the Boughtons have laid out is their son’s school portrait. A talented senior at Eli Whitney Technical High School, Jonathan Boughton was studying automotive technology.
Other photos hint at Boughton’s passion. There’s one of him visiting the Essex steam train with his family, and one of him, just 4 years old, riding a lawn mower.
Another picture, taken on Boughton’s fourth birthday, shows him sitting in front of Thomas the Tank Engine, wearing a Thomas the Tank Engine shirt and holding a Thomas the Tank Engine toy.
He’s smiling wide in almost all of the photos.
‘Tornado baby’
Jonathan Boughton “loved life,” and “he loved doing things,” according to his mom.
He hated sitting still, and rarely watched TV. Instead, he wanted to learn how things worked, she said, adding that he earned the nickname “tornado baby” because he had to touch everything around him, sometimes taking things apart.
“You knew Jonny had been in the room because all the batteries had been taken out of the TV remotes,” Edward Boughton Jr. said.
At age 12, after a neighbor gave the Boughtons a brokendown go-kart, Jonathan Boughton bought a motor and got the vehicle to work, according to his father.
Jonathan Boughton was the youngest of three boys. Edward Boughton III, his oldest brother, said they cleared some brush in the backyard to make a racetrack. They’d zip the go-kart up the driveway and around a nearby barn.
The youngest brother also showed off his mechanical skills at his father’s business, an auto repair shop for emergency vehicles called EJ Boughton Co.
As children, Boughton Jr.’s
two older sons loved to visit his workplace so they could sit in the firetrucks, he said. But “Jonny,” the youngest of the three, loved to visit so he could figure out what was wrong with the fire trucks.
According to his family, he was always salvaging items off the side of the road, from computer monitors to car parts, to fix up and sell.
“His first moped he literally pulled out of a dumpster,” Boughton III said.
Boughton Jr. remembered arriving at the shop one day to find two dilapidated mopeds.
“Within a week (Jonathan Boughton) had one of them completely rebuilt,” he said, adding that his son was 14 years old at the time. “When you think of a prodigy, you think of an eight-year-old girl who can play Mozart on the piano. … That’s what he was to mechanics.”
According to his family, Jonathan Boughton had received a scholarship to Albertus Magnus College, where he was going to study business and get a degree that would help him eventually take over his father’s shop.
‘A ball of love’
When he set his mind to something, Jonathan Boughton was “relentless,” according to
his family.
Gurbeer Athwal, Boughton’s close friend and classmate, said the same.
“We would always try new things, whatever we felt like. We were pretty relentless,” he said. If they wanted to rig something together, “we wouldn’t let anything get in our way. We’d find a solution to literally anything.”
But there was another side to Boughton: a soft, loving side.
“He lived life to the fullest … but he always looked out for others,” Athwal said. “He’d definitely notice if you were acting different or quieter, if something was up.”
Kayla Vernon, who dated Boughton for four years, said when she was having a bad day, he could always make her laugh. He had a “huge heart” and a “unique, unconditional way of showing his love,” she said.
Lalitha Kasturirangan, Boughton’s English teacher, described him as “funny,” “smart” and a “sweetheart of a person.” Even though she sometimes had to pester him about assignments — she said English was not his priority, though he was a brilliant writer — he always respected her.
“There was just no malice in the child, if you know what I mean. He was good-hearted, he was genuinely affectionate. … He
never held it against you that you were chasing him,” she said. “That really stands out in my mind.”
Peg Sonntag, Boughton’s social studies teacher, said he always had a smile and a joke, and that he loved asking questions.
“He was just a real joy to have around,” she said. “He made everybody comfortable, and we enjoyed his company.”
Boughton’s parents also loved spending time with their son.
“He was my best friend,” Edward Boughton Jr. said. “We did everything together.”
Snowmobiling was a favorite activity for the father-son pair, who trekked up to New Hampshire
every chance they got.
Stephanie Boughton remembered the first time she dropped off her youngest son at nursery school. He clung to her leg so hard, she started calling him “barnacle boy.”
“Being his mom was just awesome because he was such a ball of love,” she said. He “never stopped smiling.”
Jonathan Boughton ended all conversations with his mom, including their last, by telling her he loved her, she said.
‘Keep his memory alive’
The day after their son’s fatal crash, Edward and Stephanie Boughton woke up knowing they had to do something.
“Something that would keep his memory alive, something that he would be proud of,” Edward Boughton Jr. said.
They set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a scholarship in their son’s honor, to be awarded to students who showed talent in the trades.
“I think he put the thought into our heads, because it just came,” Stephanie Boughton said.
It can be expensive to kick off a career in the trades – tools cost a lot of money, and when you’re new to the business, companies might be wary of lending their equipment, she said.
“We wanted to give kids … an opportunity to get those tools and … a good head-start to doing what they love,” said Edward Boughton Jr.
The couple’s hardest cry came after they launched the GoFundMe page and saw it raise more than $800 in minutes.
“I know that he’s here and he’s going, ‘this is awesome,’” Stephanie Boughton said. “It helps with the hole—”
“It does,” her husband chimed in.
“—that we can make something good out of the most heinous thing ever,” she continued.
Though they are still working out details, the Boughtons said they intend to give two scholarships to Eli Whitney students and one to a North Branford resident each year for as many years as possible.
As of Friday afternoon, the family had raised nearly $45,000 for the scholarship fund, according to its GoFundMe page. Those wishing to donate can do so at www.gofundme.com/ f/jonathan-r-boughton-memorialscholarship.