Dr. Harold Bolding

Dr. Harold F. ‘Skip’ Bolding, aged 95, passed away peacefully at his home in Gulf Breeze, FL, on January 28, 2020.

Dr. Bolding graduated from the Tulane University School of Medicine in 1950 and completed his internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.  He completed residencies in psychiatry at Boston State Hospital (1951-53) and Massachusetts Memorial Hospital (1953-56), and then served as Senior Psychiatrist at Boston State Hospitals and Briggs Clinic (1953-55).

Dr. Bolding returned to New Orleans and established a private psychiatric practice in 1956, which continued until his retirement to Gulf Breeze in the 1990s.  During his 40 year of practice in New Orleans, he was affiliated with several prominent New Orleans institutions, including Ochsner Foundation Hospital and Clinic, New Orleans Mental Health Center, and Metairie Mental Health Center.  Dr. Bolding served as Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tulane Medical School from 1962-71, as Psychiatric Consultant at the New Orleans Veterans Hospital from 1972-81, and Medical Director of the Acute Treatment Unit of the Coliseum Medical Center from 1987-91.

Additional contributions to his profession include serving as a Board Member of the Louisiana Mental Health Association from 1964-66, serving also on the Association’s Professional Advisory Committee in 1965.  Dr. Bolding served as President of the DePaul Medical Staff in 1967 and was a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Dr. Bolding was born in New Orleans on Nov. 26, 1924 to Dr. Homer Frank Bolding and Stella Rosser Bolding.  He had one sister, Mary Bolding Chambliss (deceased).  The family lived in Texas, where his father practiced psychiatry.  He served as Hospital Corpsman for the U.S. Navy from 1944-46.

Dr. Bolding met Dorothy Davis Bolding while they were attending Tulane University.  They were married in 1948 and had three daughters: Leslie (Hal Vaughan), Jean (Mark Potts), and Carol (Dan Brown).  They were divorced in 1968, and he later married Sarah ‘Sally’ Notgrass.

Dr. Bolding was preceded in death by his wife Sally in 2005.  He is survived by three daughters; two grandchildren, Gustav F. Bahn (Joanna) and Catherine Brown; two great-grandchildren, Georgia Bahn and Ella Bahn; five nieces, four great-nieces and seven great-nephews; and beloved friends Steve and Sheila Speirs, Jeanette Myers, and Zack Myers.

Dr. Bolding was an avid sailor and spent many happy hours on Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico.  He also loved art, classical music, literature, Romance languages, playing bridge and chess, and dining with family and friends.  He was an independent spirt and thinker who charted his own unique course throughout his life.  He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.

The family wishes to thank Vitas Hospice and Granny Nannies for their care and support during his final days.