Robert B. Bolt

Biography

The scion of this distinguished family, Dr. Richard Arthur Bolt (1880-1959), was an authority on child health care. Bolt was Medical Director of the U.S. Indemnity (Tsing Hua) College, Beijing (1911-1916); Chief of the Bureau of Child Hygiene, Cleveland (Ohio) Department of Public Health (1917-1918); Instructor, Case Western Reserve University (1916-1920); Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University (1920-1925); Consultant to the U.S. Children's Bureau (1924-1937); Assistant Professor, University of California (1925-1929); Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University (1929-1945); and, Lecturer in Maternal and Child Health, University of California (1945-1948). Bolt studied child health in Germany (1933) and was a member of the White House Conference on Children (1939). He was author of numerous monographs on public health topics. On domestic and overseas trips Dr. Bolt took many photographs that he later used to illustrate public and academic lectures.

Bolt's wife, Beatrice French Bolt (1881-1974), a graduate of Stanford University (1905), was a socialite with many friends in the fields of medicine and literature. A gracious hostess, whose home became a gathering place for people of prominence, Mrs. Bolt was also a meticulous diarist and record keeper. She accompanied her husband to China, Germany and elsewhere.The Bolts had four children: Elizabeth, Robert, Marion Jane and Richard Henry.