Earnest Horton Bolin

E. Horton Bolin: husband; father, educator and craftsman; passed into the presence of God on Monday evening, the ninth of February, surrounded by family and friends.

He was born on April 21, 1921 in Kansas City, Missouri, the youngest child of Swedish immigrants Sven and Tekla Bolin. Horton grew up working at the family business, the Niagara Pool at 81st and Troost where he became a skilled swimmer and diver. Joining the Boy Scouts in the thirties, he progressed rapidly and became one of the youngest Eagle Scouts in the nation in 1935. After accompanying his family on a visit to Sweden in 1939, he graduated from Center High School in 1940.

Horton went to Central Missouri State College where he joined Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity and then the Naval Reserve after Pearl Harbor. This was where he eventually met and married Jean Waitman of Tina, Missouri in 1944. Their education was interrupted by the war when Horton was activated and sent to State College, Pennsylvania for training, where their first child, David, was born in February of 1945. Horton was soon deployed to the Pacific where he served through the end of the war.

Upon his return, he and Jean went back to C.M.S.C. where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Education. Horton began his teaching career in the small towns of Fertile and Hanlontown in northern Iowa, where he taught drafting and coached basketball while his wife taught English. During this period, he also served as an executive with the Winnebago Council of the Boy Scouts, the whole family spending the summer of 1948 living in a log cabin at Camp Roosevelt where he was the Supervisor.

After the birth of his daughter, Kris Ann, in 1950, Horton began seeking a teaching position in the Kansas City area. He joined the faculty of Turner High School in Kansas City, Kansas in 1951, teaching drafting, math and driver’s education. He also found time to design and build a new family home in the growing suburb of Shawnee, moving in early in 1952.

As the Turner School District grew, Horton’s mechanical drawing classes were in increasing demand, also he became involved in community activities as a founding board member of the Wyandotte County Credit Union. He also put his Scouting experience to good use as Scoutmaster of the troop at the First Baptist Church of Shawnee where he was a long-time member.

In the early sixties, Horton and Jean decided to build a new home near Lake Quivira and again he designed, contracted, and did the cabinetry and much of the finish carpentry for the house. Professionally, Horton grew in his field, earning a Masters Degree in Industrial Education and a Specialists Degree in Administration from Pittsburg State University, eventually becoming Vice-Principal of Turner High School and then of Pierson Junior High until his retirement in 1986.

After retirement, the Bolins enjoyed working to improve their home as well as extensive travel around the country, often visiting relatives and old friends. They also took pride in their growing number of great-grandchildren, hosting Christmas Eve gatherings for the family.

Horton and Jean celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1994 and they traveled less often, content to stay home where they studied playing the organ and Horton built woodworking projects. Then, as Jean’s health deteriorated due to cancer, he devoted most of his time to caring for her. Despite his own health problems, Horton cared for his wife, as she grew weaker, a process that finally ended with her passing in 2003. The next year he was persuaded to make a return visit to Sweden accompanied by his daughter Kris and her husband, Michael.

Horton Bolin maintained his independence for the rest of his days, living in the house he had designed and built. In this, a wonderful team of caregivers who became almost as much a family to him as his children assisted him. Their duties grew as Alzheimer’s disease slowly dulled his once-precise mind, and they gathered to be with him in Shawnee Mission Medical Center as pneumonia quietly took him away.

Horton Bolin is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, David and Nancy Bolin of Kansas City, Kansas; daughter and son-in-law, Kris and Michael Stouffer of Overland Park, Kansas; his niece, Kristie Carver Tatum of Charlotte, North Carolina; two grandsons, Ron Bolin of Kansas City, Kansas and Air Force Master Sergeant Gerald Bolin of O’Fallon, Illinois and five great-grandchildren. He will also be deeply missed by his loving caregivers: Marie, Sadie, Cathy and Debbie and all of the relatives and friends he met during his last trip to Sweden.

Visitation and Funeral Service

Funeral Service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, February 13, 2009 at the Amos Family Chapel of Shawnee. A visitation will be one hour prior from 10-11 a.m. at the chapel. Burial will follow at Johnson County Memorial Gardens.