Robert Bolte

Robert A. Nagy Bolte, known as Bob to many of his family and friends, passed away on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014. He was 76 years old.

Born in Graz, Austria in 1938 to Andreas and Eleonore Nagy, he entered life as he lived it, in the company of his sister Renate; she arrived minutes before midnight on April 9th and he minutes after on April 10th. The pair were inseparable ever after and, having survived WWII, the loss of both their mother and father, and years in an orphanage, immigrated to the United States in 1951, when they were adopted by George and Mary Bolte of Elsmere, Kentucky. They spent the remainder of their childhood on the Bolte’s 5-acre rabbit and Christmas tree farm, where both adolescents learned English while being schooled in the arts of gardening, home-cooking, baking, sewing, and the rearing of small livestock.

Robert graduated from Elsmere’s St. Henry High School in 1958. In keeping with his interest in cars, which was most obvious in the stylish convertible which he drove (always with the top down) and meticulously maintained as a young adult, one of Robert’s first jobs was part-time work at Kentucky Auto Parts. Later and for many years, he employed his impressive physical strength at Newport Steel. After his feet and legs were severely scalded when a faulty catwalk gave way, plunging him into a cooling vat below, Robert declined a proffered settlement for his injuries; always embracing hard work, he instead requested the guarantee of a job with the mill until he was eligible for retirement. Following the accident, Robert battled diabetes, to which he lost a leg, for the remainder of his life. He suffered a stroke on the morning of the 22nd and was rushed to the hospital, where he died later the same day. A funeral mass officiated by Robert’s cousin, the Rev. Richard Bolte, was offered up on Friday, July 25th at St. Timothy Church in Union, Kentucky; and Robert was later laid to rest at the Forest Lawn Cemetery outside of Elsmere, Kentucky.

Robert was preceded in death by his American and European parents, his devoted sister, his aunts Marcella Vaske, Cecelia Bolte and Caroline Ruehl, and his uncles Louis G. Bolte, Jerome (Bill) Bolte, Albert Bolte and Victor Bolte. He leaves behind his aunt Rita Tanner, uncle Sylvester Bolte, his five nieces and nephews: Rose Ann H. Witt, Raymond E. Maifeld, Randolph G. Maifeld, Rosalie P. Turturillo and Richard R. Maifeld, and many cousins. Though faced with great loss and tremendous hardship over the course of his lifetime, Robert’s larger-than-life personality made him a man synonymous with a great strength of both heart and body. He was beloved for his loyal support of family, his unwavering kindness, an impish playfulness, a ready sense of humor and an out-sized generosity. Reunited eternally now with his fraternal twin, he will live forever in the hearts and memories of all fortunate enough to have known and loved him.