From the time they first met 30 years ago in line in Kent Dining Hall, Michael Boyle, EG ’69, and Joanne Monaghan Boyle, CHEP ’69, clicked immediately.

Today, their partnership is still going strong—both on a personal, and now, professional level. Mike, who for years worked as an attorney, and Joanne, who ran a successful retail art and framing business, launched a successful San Francisco Bay area mutual fund in 1998 called the Boyle Marathon Fund.

“We couldn’t be in a more competitive business than we are now,” says Mike Boyle. “But, one of the things we learned well at Delaware was how to set goals and go for them.”

On the surface, the manner in which the Boyles started their business—moving cross-country from Florida to San Francisco without jobs in place—might seem risky to others.

“We had a lifetime goal to live in the city that we most loved and be our own bosses,” says Joanne, who majored in physical education at UD. “It was just a question of when we’d get to that point.”

The big move west occurred 10 months after Mike took part in the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., in 1996, finishing the race in a respectable 4 hours and 23 minutes. “Taking part in a marathon is about going for the long haul, making it to the finish line,” he says. “It seemed natural that we would use that word, ‘marathon,’ for the name of our mutual fund.”

Though not professional investors, the Boyles have been buying and selling stocks for more than 20 years and found themselves doing quite well. So well, in fact, that both Mike and Joanne were looking for a challenge that “would be a good fit for the second half of our lives.” Once settled in San Francisco, the two decided to create a career niche that would mesh their personal and professional goals.

“We wanted to be our own bosses and work together,” Mike says. “We knew, when we moved out here, we could continue investing on our own or let other people join us and do just as well as we are.”

Setting up the Boyle Marathon Fund took about six months, starting with just $100,000 and four stocks. Today, the Boyles track between 30 and 40 stocks in their $3.7 million fund. Their top holdings include Cisco Systems, Dell Computer, Microsoft, Merck, Gap and Schwab and the funds rank at or near the top in rate of return in the catagories for large cap growth funds.

Joanne handles marketing, Mike does administrative duties and together they select the stocks for the fund. “We select stocks using fundamental analysis, by relying on our own personal knowledge of companies and markets,” Mike says. “We select large, medium or small capitalization companies wherever we see the greatest potential for capital appreciation.”

As for their professional partnership, the Boyles say they’re having a blast.

“Our work styles mesh well together,” Joanne says. “We each bring something to the table in terms of running the business.”

Emphasizing companies based in the San Francisco Bay area, the Boyles have focused on four sectors where consumer trends and demographics promise strong long-term growth—health care, technology, retailing and financial services.

From the start, Joanne says, there “seemed to be a natural link” between the couple’s management style and the mutual fund industry. “In college, I learned about teaching others how to be physically fit,” Joanne says. “Now, I teach them how to be financially fit. This mutual fund is about fiscal fitness, taking care of your future financially.”

Mike, who earned his undergraduate degree in engineering, says as major shareholders in the fund, he and Joanne work “shoulder-to-shoulder with the other stockholders.”

The Boyle Marathon Fund requires a minimum investment of only $500. “The goal is to make it easy for anyone to invest,” says Joanne, adding that the word-of-mouth fund has more than 200 shareholders, many of them friends of the couple. “The word’s really starting to get out now and we’re growing quickly.”

Despite its small size, the Boyle Marathon Fund has garnered plenty of attention, especially in the media. The Boyles were the focus of a lengthy feature in a July issue of Mutual Funds magazine, which says their fund “has the big professional competition eating dust.” The Contra Costa Sunday Times, meanwhile, praised the fund’s “stellar performance.”

The Wall Street Journal noted that the Boyle Marathon Fund has registered a one-year return of 48.20 percent, compared with 25.59 percent for the average growth and income fund. Lipper Analytical Services, meanwhile, rated the Boyle Marathon Fund as fifth best among 846 growth and income funds for the 12-month period that ended Aug. 26.

The Boyle Marathon Fund has also been featured on the Dow Jones News Wire and in Craig Tolliver’s “CBS Marketwatch.com” column.

“We’re very pleased for our stockholders,” Mike says. “Helping people realize their financial goals gives us a great feeling of accomplishment.”

The Boyle Marathon Fund can be contacted at 1-888-88-BOYLE or via its website at <www.boylefund.com>.

–Nicole Pensiero