Dorothy (Dottie/Dot) Grover Bolton, who passed away peacefully Oct. 10, 2019, was born in Freeport, Long Island, where she developed her life-long love of the water.
She earned a bachelor’s degree as an English major in liberal arts and a Master of Education degree in school psychology, both from Syracuse University. She furthered her education by studying developing human potential in South California with leaders in the field. Her careers spanned youth work, director of religious education, school education, school psychologist, corporate trainer, leadership coach and writer.
In 1953 she married Bill Gabor and had three children. Her second marriage in 1972 was to Robert H. Bolton. During 50 years of marriage, their well-loved family consisted of Dorothy’s three children, William Gabor and Robert Gabor, both of Cazenovia, and Hallie Gabor Hawkins of Greenville, N.C., and her four step-children, James Bolton of Minneapolis, MN, Elizabeth Bolton of Swarthmore, PA, Douglas Bolton of Evanston, Il, Kristin Bolton of Cornwall, VT, and 17 delightful grandchildren.
The Boltons founded and led Ridge Associates, a management training firm dedicated to the development of managers, supervisors, customer service representatives, sales professionals, corporate trainers and individual contributors in Fortune 500 corporations. The couple co-authored five books on psychology, training and personal development.
Dottie hopes to be remembered as a loving wife, mother and grandmother who was always up for an adventure. Whether it was being a photographer’s model in New York City from age 16 on, leading the Syracuse University Marching Band, water skiing professionally in shows up and down the East Coast and training corporate managers, Dottie lived life to its fullest.
