Gerard R. Bolduc

Rev. Gerard R. Bolduc, OMI, 72, died in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 7, 2014. He was born in Lewiston, Maine, on May 23, 1941, and was the son of the late Roger and Juliette (Pepin) Bolduc. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by a sister, Doris Morin.
He began his education at the Oblate College in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1959 and continued at St Joseph's College in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in 1962. He also received education at the Ottawa University in Ottawa, at the Oblate College in Natick, Massachusetts, at Weston College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC (where he earned a Doctorate in Social Work), at the School of Theology in Andover, Massachusetts and at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He professed his first vows as a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate in Colebrook, New Hampshire, in 1962 and was ordained a priest on September 6, 1969, in Natick, Massachusetts.
His early ministry included pastoral assignments at Ste. Jean-Baptiste and St. Joseph the Worker Shrine in Lowell, Massachusetts. He served as Chaplain at the Men's Correctional Center in South Windham, Maine. He was the Pastoral Assistant at the Bureau of Human Relations in Portland, Maine. He served as Chaplain for the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, the Federal Correctional Facilities in El Reno, Oklahoma, the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota, and the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey. He did vocation work for the Missionary Oblates and was the Director of Pastoral Formation for Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan.
More recently, he held parish assignments at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Calumet, Oklahoma, and in Florida at St. John Fisher Parish in West Palm Beach and at St. Phillip Church in Opa Locka. He retired at St. Henry's Oblate Residence in Belleville, Illinois, where he resided at the time of his death. Throughout his ministry, Fr. Bolduc was very active in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement, having served as head chaplain and presented at hundreds of encounters.
Services were held January 10, 2014, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Illinois. Renner Funeral Home, 120 North Illinois Street, Belleville, IL, was in charge of arrangements.
In addition to his Oblate family, he is survived by a sister, Murielle Parks, and her husband, Harold, of Gorham, Maine.