COL. LESLIE JAMES BOLSTRIDGE II

CORINNA – Col. Leslie James Bolstridge II, 89, U.S. Air Force, retired, died Jan. 11, 2010, at home. He had been ill for several years. Col. Bolstridge was born March 23, 1920, in Baltimore, the oldest child of Loren and Lena (Ervin) Bolstridge. His parents, originally of Corinna, were living in Baltimore while Mr. Bolstridge worked at Sparrows Point, then the worlds largest steel mill and the place that made the girders in the Golden Gate Bridge. Shortly afterward, the family returned to Corinna, where Leslie graduated from Corinna Union Academy. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Maine in agriculture, and a master’s degree from George Washington University in foreign affairs. In 1943, Col. Bolstridge enlisted in what was then the U.S. Army Air Force, and was stationed in Boca Raton, Fla., where he taught radio operation and electronics, and met his future wife, Mary Lee McRae of McRae, Ga., a U.S. Army nurse who had trained at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital. They married in 1946. The Bolstridges returned to Corinna, where Col. Bolstridge purchased his parents’ property, Smiling Hill Farm, on what is now Bolstridge Road. Their daughter, Mary Ann, was born in 1949. When hostilities broke out in Korea in 1950, the colonel was recalled to duty by the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed in Japan, where he developed a network of listening posts that allowed NATO forces to eavesdrop on enemy radio transmissions, giving them the upper hand in air engagements. His younger child and son, Loren III, was born in Japan, in 1953. Col. Bolstridge’s Air Force career was so notable that much of his work remains classified. He worked primarily with the U.S. Air Force Security Service, the intelligence arm of the U.S. Air Force, managing electronic eavesdropping from the U.S., Europe and the Pacific. His posts included the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md., and NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain, Wyo. In Hawaii and Guam, he helped plan Operation Linebacker, the continuous heavy bombing campaign of North Vietnam – known as the “Christmas bombings” – that marked the last years of the Vietnam War. For his work on Operation Linebacker, he shared in the 1972 Collier Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association to “the Officers and Men of the 7th Air Force and 8th Air Force of the United States Air Force and Task Force 77 of the United States Navy.” Ten years later his son, Loren, would share the 1982 Collier Trophy for development of Boeing Corp.’s 757 and 767 aircraft. They are believed to be one of the few father-son pairs to win the prize for unrelated efforts. Col. Bolstridge retired from the Air Force in 1977 and went to work for RCA Corp. on classified advanced communication systems for the United States and foreign governments. He and his wife lived in Camden, N.J., for 10 years, until retiring for a second time and returning to Corinna. Col. Bolstridge treasured his boyhood home and expressed that love through support of the town’s planning and water boards, parsonage committee, food bank and community economic development projects. He helped found Corinna Historical Society in the building where he had attended school, and was its first president and one of its most significant benefactors. A plaque at the society honors his major gifts. He was a member of Corinna United Methodist Church. Col. Bolstridge was predeceased by his wife and daughter; his brothers, Loren Dewey Bolstridge Jr. and Lloyd A. Bolstridge Sr.; and a sister, Lorraine Porter. He is survived by his brother, Elmer Bolstridge of Corinna; his sisters, Lois Bowers of Bangor and Leatrice Moore of Crystal River, Fla.; his son-in-law, Earl Klevins of Corinna; his son, Loren Dewey Bolstridge III and his daughter-in-law, Maryn McKenna, of Minneapolis and Atlanta; his sister-in-law, Audrey Bolstridge of Corinna; several nieces and nephews. Friends may call 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at Crosby & Neal Chapel, 68 Exeter Road, Corinna. Funeral services will be held 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, at Corinna United Methodist Church with the Rev. Grace Mazhandu officiating. Spring burial will be at Morses Corner Cemetery, Corinna. Memorial donations may be made to the Corinna Union Academy Trustee’s Scholarship, care of Mrs. Ruth Hudson, 441 Nokomis Road, Corinna, ME 04928. Those who wish may leave written condolences at www.CrosbyNeal.com.