Arthur Stanley Bolster Jr., 96, passed away on Oct. 16 at the Hospice Compassionate Care Facility in Richmond, Ky. Known by his middle name, Stan was born in Bismark, N.D. on Jan. 30, 1922, and was raised in Nashua, N.H. He married Elizabeth Barker Winkfield in October 1949, and they were married until her death in 2017.
Dr. Bolster was a prominent educator, and an American historian. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard University Graduate School. After serving as a Naval officer on the Alchiba and the Whitley in the Pacific during WWII, he began his teaching career in the public schools, teaching American history for several years in Grosse Pointe, Mich. and Pelham, N.Y., before working from 1958-1982 as a clinical professor of education in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, while simultaneously teaching middle school and high school in the Newton, Mass. public schools, his “clinic.” In his retirement years in Maine, Stan volunteered as a guide at a lighthouse and colonial fort, as a hospital worker, and as a board member for a local arts festival. In South Florida, he served as a docent at a local science museum.
Stan is survived by son, Stephen Clark Bolster and wife Sandra Spearen Bolster of Berea, Ky.; daughter-in-law, Leslie Cheney Bolster (son Greg Bolster deceased) of Walpole; grandchildren, Evan Bolster of Berea, Ky., Todd and wife Emilie Bolster of Carmel, Ind., Katherine Bolster of Rockport, Mass., Chad Bolster of Bristol, and Matthew Bolster of Waldoboro; and great-grandchildren Haylee, Sylvie and Ian Bolster of Carmel, Ind.
A service of celebration for his life is scheduled on Sat., Dec. 15 in Berea, Ky., and at Boothbay Harbor Congregational Church in Maine next summer.
Donations in his name may be made to Dartmouth College, the Hospice Compassionate Care Center in Richmond, Ky., or the Bristol Public Library in Bristol.
Family members can be contacted through Lakes Funeral Home in Berea, Ky., which is handling arrangements, lakesfuneralhome.com.
