They were survived by three sons, Harry Hasbrouck Boice and his wife, Ethyl McNama Boice, John Chipman Boice (who identified the bodies of his parents and sisters), William Spencer Boyce, and William's widowed mother, Sarah Belknap Hasbrouck Boice.

William's family was from Newburgh, NY.  Until a few years before the fire he was a co-owner in Krause, Boice & Co., a manufacturer and importer of walking stick canes and umbrellas. He had retired and the company was sold but shortly before his death William had decided to go back to work, as a sales representative for the Kreis & Hubbard company. He was well familiar with the Kreis & Hubbard product line; William got his start in the umbrella trade as a sales agent with White and Major, representing the Kreis and Hubbard line, and was a co-founder of the Lewis, Boice & Smith company that evolved into Kreis & Hubbard.

William and Sarah had married around 1875. They lived in Burlington, Kansas briefly in 1879 but by 1897 had settled in Chicago and in 1903 lived at 5721 Rosalie Court (known today as Harper Avenue).  Bessie attended the Ray School.  The Ray school lost another student to the Iroquois theater, Taylor Dryden, and two teachers, Florence O. White and Daisy Livingston.

The funeral service for the three Boice family members was held on January 2, 1904, at 2:00 pm at the Presbyterian church in Hyde Park at 53rd and Washington, known today as the United Church of Hyde Park and United Methodist Presbyterian Church.

That section of Washington St., between 60th and 61st streets, was named South Park Court until 1894 and in 1913 was renamed Blackstone Avenue as it is known today.

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