Boileau graduated from Minocqua High School and served in the United States Army, in France, during World War I.

Boileau graduated from Marquette University Law School, in 1922, and was subsequently admitted to the bar.

He returned to Marathon County and became district attorney in 1926, a position he held until his election to Congress in 1930.

Boileau was first elected a Republican to the Seventy-second United States Congress as the representative of Wisconsin's 8th congressional district.

[2] He was the last surviving man elected to Congress as a member of the Wisconsin Progressive Party.