Rev. Richard Robert Bolduc, OMI, 92, died on February 2, 2019, at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Residence in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. He was a son of the late Adelard and Aimee (Vaillancourt) Bolduc. He was predeceased by two sisters, Sr. Louise Bolduc, PM, and Rose Bolduc; and by two brothers, Andre and Raymond.
Fr. Bolduc was born and educated in Biddeford, Maine where he attended St. Louis High School. He served in the United States Army from 1946 to 1947 and in the United States Air Force from 1951 to 1954, being honorably discharged from both branches of the military.
Between 1954 and 1964, he completed his religious studies at the Missionary Oblate Seminaries in Bar Harbor, Maine and Natick, Massachusetts.
On August 2, 1958, Fr. Bolduc professed his first vows as a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate at the Oblate Novitiate in Colebrook, New Hampshire. He professed perpetual vows at the Oblate Seminary in Natick in 1961. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Louis Collignon, OMI on January 19, 1964, in Notre Dame de Lourdes Church, Lowell, Massachusetts.
In 1965, he received his first assignment to the missions in Haiti where he did parish ministry until early 2001. Parishes he was assigned to were Ste. Anne, Camp Perrin; Sacred Heart, Les Cayes; St. Jeanne, Chantal; St. John the Baptist, Tiburon; Our Lady of the Assumption, Ouanaminthe; Sacred Heart, Cape Haitian; and St. Charles Borromé, Ferrier. In 2001, after ministering in Haiti for 36 years, Fr. Bolduc returned to the U.S. and joined the Oblate Community on Mt. Washington Street in Lowell, then joined the community at St. Eugene House in Lowell. In May of 2003, he transferred to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Residence in Tewksbury. He did part-time ministry while able, serving at both St. Dorothy's Church (now part of the Parish of the Transfiguration) in Wilmington, Massachusetts, and at D'Youville Senior Care in Lowell. He fully retired in 2015 and remained in Tewksbury until his death.
In addition to his Oblate family, he is survived by a brother, Jerome, and his wife, Betty Ann, of Florida; and by a nephew, Marc, and his wife, Pat, of Biddeford, Maine.
Services and calling hours will be in the Chapel at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Residence, 486 Chandler Street, Tewksbury. Calling hours will be on Thursday, February 7, 2019, from 2-4 and 7-9 pm with a Prayer Service at 7:30 pm. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, February 8, 2019, at 11:00 am. Interment will take place in the Oblate Cemetery.
Donations in memory of Fr. Bolduc may be made to the Oblate Infirmary Fund, 486 Chandler Street, Tewksbury, MA 01876.