My Grandpa, Grandpa Ted, passed away last week. This is the obituary that Bumpa wrote:
Theodore (Ted) Oliver Bolduc passed away October 21, 2010 at the age of 91
He died of natural causes at the Hale Nohea care home in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Ted was born on New Years Day in 1919 in Augusta, Maine to Michael and Jeanette Bolduc. He was their only son and grew up with two younger sisters, Violette and Anita. He graduated from Cony High School in 1938 where he excelled as both an athlete and student leader. Growing up during the Great Depression, Ted developed a very strong work ethic and appreciation for the value of a dollar. His drive and ambition earned him public recognition and a trip to Washington D.C. to meet President Hoover in 1931 at the age of twelve for building his paper route service from nothing to well over 100 customers during the Depression.
Early on, Ted demonstrated an uncanny sense of insight when it came to investing. Just weeks before the stock market crash, he withdrew his money from the local bank and saved what would have a been a total loss. When his father asked him how he knew to take this unusual step, he said he just had a feeling. Though always the fiscal conservative, from that point and for the rest of his life, he had an uncanny flair for doing the right thing at the right time.
Ted enlisted in the Navy at the start of World War II and served as an Aviation Photographer, assigned primarily to "Lighter Than Air" (blimp) squadrons in Georgia and Florida. He married Navy nurse Bernice Fournier, from Waterville, Maine, in 1946 and together they raised eight children. Ted and Bernice left Maine in 1952 and ventured west with their first three children, settling in the San Fernando Valley in California back when the Valley was mostly orchards. As the Valley grew, Ted recognized early on that a career in real estate would probably be a fruitful path to follow for himself and his growing family. After working for a number of brokerage firms, Ted passed the brokers' exam and founded his own real estate company, Valley College Realty. He opened two very successful offices operating in the 1960's before finally selling both his custom home and business to the same man and moving his family to Santa Barbara in 1967. He subsequently became an expert broker in the purchasing of post office buildings when those assets were passed to the private sector. It was this enterprise that launched him to impressive financial success.
A self made man with only a high school education, Ted amassed a sizable estate but always lived a humble life for himself. He was very instrumental in assisting his children and grandchildren in their educational pursuits.
From the 1970's and through the 90's, Ted traveled to the far reaches of the globe leaving no place for wanting. His final years were spent residing mostly in California and Hawaii.
Ted was a very generous donor to two favorite charities throughout his latter years, Boys Town and Saint Jude's Children's Hospital. Stemming from his Catholic upbringing, these two causes were dear to him representing his desire to help the helpless and to give them a fair chance in life.
Ted is survived by his sister Anita of Augusta ME, his son Michael (and wife Wendy of Temecula CA), his son David (and wife Melody of Rancho Santa Margarita CA), his son Steven (Encnitas CA), his daughter Julie (and husband John Lauritsen of Santa Barbara CA), his daughter Mary (and husband Mered Oren of Carlsbad CA), his son Gregory (and wife Joanne of Santa Barbara CA), his daughter Denise (and husband Larry Caster of Kaneohe HI), eighteen grandchildren and three great grandsons. He was predeceased by his oldest daughter Susan Coffey of Green Valley AZ.
A funeral mass service will be held at 11:00 AM Friday November 5, 2010 at Saint Augustine church in Augusta, Maine.
He died of natural causes at the Hale Nohea care home in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Ted was born on New Years Day in 1919 in Augusta, Maine to Michael and Jeanette Bolduc. He was their only son and grew up with two younger sisters, Violette and Anita. He graduated from Cony High School in 1938 where he excelled as both an athlete and student leader. Growing up during the Great Depression, Ted developed a very strong work ethic and appreciation for the value of a dollar. His drive and ambition earned him public recognition and a trip to Washington D.C. to meet President Hoover in 1931 at the age of twelve for building his paper route service from nothing to well over 100 customers during the Depression.
Early on, Ted demonstrated an uncanny sense of insight when it came to investing. Just weeks before the stock market crash, he withdrew his money from the local bank and saved what would have a been a total loss. When his father asked him how he knew to take this unusual step, he said he just had a feeling. Though always the fiscal conservative, from that point and for the rest of his life, he had an uncanny flair for doing the right thing at the right time.
Ted enlisted in the Navy at the start of World War II and served as an Aviation Photographer, assigned primarily to "Lighter Than Air" (blimp) squadrons in Georgia and Florida. He married Navy nurse Bernice Fournier, from Waterville, Maine, in 1946 and together they raised eight children. Ted and Bernice left Maine in 1952 and ventured west with their first three children, settling in the San Fernando Valley in California back when the Valley was mostly orchards. As the Valley grew, Ted recognized early on that a career in real estate would probably be a fruitful path to follow for himself and his growing family. After working for a number of brokerage firms, Ted passed the brokers' exam and founded his own real estate company, Valley College Realty. He opened two very successful offices operating in the 1960's before finally selling both his custom home and business to the same man and moving his family to Santa Barbara in 1967. He subsequently became an expert broker in the purchasing of post office buildings when those assets were passed to the private sector. It was this enterprise that launched him to impressive financial success.
A self made man with only a high school education, Ted amassed a sizable estate but always lived a humble life for himself. He was very instrumental in assisting his children and grandchildren in their educational pursuits.
From the 1970's and through the 90's, Ted traveled to the far reaches of the globe leaving no place for wanting. His final years were spent residing mostly in California and Hawaii.
Ted was a very generous donor to two favorite charities throughout his latter years, Boys Town and Saint Jude's Children's Hospital. Stemming from his Catholic upbringing, these two causes were dear to him representing his desire to help the helpless and to give them a fair chance in life.
Ted is survived by his sister Anita of Augusta ME, his son Michael (and wife Wendy of Temecula CA), his son David (and wife Melody of Rancho Santa Margarita CA), his son Steven (Encnitas CA), his daughter Julie (and husband John Lauritsen of Santa Barbara CA), his daughter Mary (and husband Mered Oren of Carlsbad CA), his son Gregory (and wife Joanne of Santa Barbara CA), his daughter Denise (and husband Larry Caster of Kaneohe HI), eighteen grandchildren and three great grandsons. He was predeceased by his oldest daughter Susan Coffey of Green Valley AZ.
A funeral mass service will be held at 11:00 AM Friday November 5, 2010 at Saint Augustine church in Augusta, Maine.
I am so glad that I had the chance to know my Grandpa. Not all people get the chance to know their grandparents, and I have had the lucky fortune of having all of mine in my life well into adulthood.
I always appreciated my Grandpa, both for his generosity, and for his spunk. It is he who contributed significantly to my college education, and then started a 529 plan for my boys college funds, as well. He loved to travel- a shared passion of ours- and all of my best memories of him somehow involved travel. I give him credit, in general, for much of my worldliness. He generously sent Jamie and I on a European Adventure for three weeks to celebrate our respective graduations. He took the entire family on a very fun trip to Cozymel, which allowed me to become closer to my cousins. Once, when he was flying through LAX via Japan, he stopped by my place on Reading Road. We went to dinner together, and he presented me with a beautiful Japanese scroll from his travels. He always made me feel he was proud of me. It wasn't hard for me to make him proud- we valued the same sort of things- our Catholicism, hard work, independence. He didn't get along well with most others in the family, and I understand that. I am grateful to my parents, though, for always encouraging me to have a relationship with him, despite their own flawed relationships with him. I am a better person for it, and they have my love and respect for their efforts and selflessness.
The first time Grandpa really entered my life is also my greatest memory of him, and it turned out to also be the greatest gift he ever gave me, even more important to me than the college education or other experiences. When I was 14, he flew my cousin Nichole and I to Hawaii to stay with him for a week. He lived in the Ilikai Hotel on Waikiki beach- does it get any cooler that that? I have so many fantastic memories of that trip- being bored out of our skulls at the Polynesian Cultural Center, going on his tour of hotel lobbies, eating only a Papaya and Orange every day for breakfast (I am not a fruit eater!), shopping at a mall in downtown Honolulu, going to Hula lessons, snorkeling, and hanging out on Waikiki Beach. He also gave Nic and me some room to breathe, so we would spend the evening unsupervised, trolling for boys on the shore(she was so much more assertive than I!) and laughing together as we made the kind of mischief young girls do in Hawaii. It was a great way to get to know my Grandpa. And it was the last quality time I spent with my cousin Nichole before she died in a car accident a few months later. So you see what a tremendous gift this trip was.
Thank you, Grandpa Ted. I love you and I will miss you.
1 comment:
Very beautiful and invaluable to me, Amy. Thank you so much.
Love,
Dad
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