Bollinger remembered for valor, presence

Funeral services were held Saturday for Bollinger Shipyard President Emeritus Richard N. Bollinger, at St. Holy Savior Catholic Church in Lockport. Interment was at Holy Savior Cemetery. He had died Jan. 17 at the age of 85.

Richard Bollinger began working with his three older brothers, Ralph, Donald and George at the company their father, Donald G. Bollinger, founded in 1946 after serving in the Marine Corps and securing a mechanical engineering degree from LSU in 1950.

In turn, Richard Bollinger was able to see the business grow from its infancy with one yard and 20 employees to a global corporation with 10 shipyards in Louisiana and Texas and nearly 2,000 employees. The company is now under the leadership subsequent family generations.

“It was an inspiration growing up and working around him,” Bollinger Shipyards Executive Vice President Charlotte Bollinger said. “Every morning we would have a meeting and he would say, ‘What is our biggest problem today?’ We then would address whatever that was, first.”

Charlotte Bollinger recalled that how as company president, Richard Bollinger would walk throughout the shipyard every day, talking with the rank-in-file employees to get their ideas and listen to their concerns. Even after retirement “Uncle Dickey,” as she called him, arrived at corporate headquarters in Lockport every day to make his rounds and know if things were going well for current employees.

“That’s just the way he was,” Charlotte Bollinger said. “He really cared about everyone.”

In addition to being an industrial executive, Richard Bollinger’s activities included serving as Lockport city engineer, being a two-term alderman, a member of the Lafourche Parish Water District and was honored as the Propeller Club Man of the Year.