This website is in memory of my father, Dwight Bolinger, a professor of Romance Languages and Linguistics. Born in Topeka, Kansas, on August 18, 1907, he died on February 23, 1992 in Palo Alto, California. Following graduation from high school, his first teaching job was in a one-room rural country school, the Lindloff School, near Stover, Missouri. He completed his teaching career as a Professor at Harvard University, from 1963-1973, then as a Visiting Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University, 1978-1992. He was a prolific writer, authoring 17 books and some 333 articles. For his complete bibliography, click here. For a full account of his teaching career, click here.
The origins of this website are as follows. Before he died, my father asked me to update his bibliography. By 1997 that was completed, except for a few additions that came to light later. It was then that Professor John Lawler of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, suggested that it be posted on the Internet and offered to do the coding. I am grateful to him for making that possible. I also thank my nephew, Bruce McClure of Exeter, England, for helping me keep the original website up-to-date in the twenty years since then. My thanks also to my sister, Ann McClure, of Aberdeen, Scotland for sharing photos, documents, and memories and for just being Ann.
With WordPress making it possible to create and maintain websites with comparative ease, I decided to have the contents of the original website transferred into a new website with additional content, including (1) the sound file of a talk that he gave to the Berkeley Linguistics Society in 1987, (2) a collection of family and university photographs tracing his career along with a narrative of his experiences, (3) some of his obituaries, and (4) his autobiographical “Three Days as a Vagrant in the Panhandle.” The transfer was completed and this new website went live on August 30, 2017. Additional material will be added periodically. A separate website on the Bolinger family history was started on November 20, 2017 and can be accessed by going to http://bolingerfamilyhistory.net/.
For a table of contents of this website, see below. The main pages are in bold face while the subpages are bulleted and underlined. You can also use the up and down arrows (pointers) in the left column to navigate. Use the down arrow to open the list of subpages and the up arrow to close it. Note that some pages are still under construction.
To listen to Bruce’s interviews with Dwight and Dwight playing some of his music, click the following link. There are three sound files of interviews and notes will appear under each sound file regarding its contents. https://www.dwightbolinger.net/dwights-memories-sound-files/. There is one sound file containing two of his piano pieces played by him.
It is interesting to see where the traffic to this website is coming from. In the first four-and-a-half months since this website was started, it received 742 hits, with the U.S. accounting for 336 (45%), China 53 (7%), U.K. 45 (6%), South Korea 35 (5%), and Japan 33 (4%). Additional hits were from Germany (17), Indonesia (15), Brazil (13), France (10), Netherlands (10), Russia (10), and Spain (10). Add to the above figures another 115 hits from 42 other countries.
For those who wish to contact me, my email address is bcbolinger at comcast.net.
—Bruce Bolinger, August, 2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Education and Professional Experience
- Education
- Honors
- Presidencies
- Teaching Career
- Concurrent Positions
- Projects Underway at Time of Death
- Bolinger Papers at Stanford
- Origins of Bibliography
- List of Books Published
- Reviews of Bolinger’s Books
- Full Bibliography
Biographical and Autobiographical Materials
- “First Person, Not Singular”
- Obituary from Language, Journal of the Linguistic Society of America
- Obituary from The Times of London
- Other Obituaries and Tributes
- “Three Days as a Vagrant in the Panhandle”
- List of Biographical and Autobiographical Materials
“Power to the Utterance” – Berkeley Linguistic Society Speech, 1987
Photographic History of Dwight Bolinger with Family, Friends, and Colleagues
- Childhood and Teenage Years
- College
- Marriage and Children
- Costa Rica, 1941 and 1989
- Topeka, Kansas
- Los Angeles, California
- Haskins Laboratories and NYC
- Boulder, Colorado
- Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Meetings with Professional Colleagues
- Palo Alto, California and Retirement
- Family in Scotland and England
Wondering if you have come across this name in you research.
Elija Bolinger Dempsey. 1820-1879
I believe he was my Great great great grandfather. As of yet I haven’t found his mother to Sw if it is her last name.
Thank you for any info you may have.
Hello Ann,
I don’t recognize the name. But if you can tell me where he lived and it is where a branch of my family lived as well, I might be able to make a connection.
Bruce Bolinger
Bruce,
My name is Kim Albins, I’m wife of Mark Albins that is son of David Albins, grandson of Philip and Jean, and great grandson of Grace and DJ Albins. I was delighted to find your website and stories of your father.. a first cousin Mark’s grandfather!what a wonderful job you have done preserving the history of our family! I just sat down with grandma Jean Albins (Philip’s wife) today and looked through old pictures of Grace and heard her stories! I took some pictures of pictures and can fill in some gaps based on her stories, of your interested. All the best,
Kim
Dear Kim,
Thank you for writing. I am delighted to hear from you. I will write you directly.
Best wishes,
Bruce Bolinger
Hello, Bruce –
Finding your site … inspired by the monument to Tina Lindeboom here in Nevada City, just to share a most sincere “Thank You” to you and your family for
the respect and care you share with your talents: What wonders of education and dedication – the research, documentation.
I grew-up in Mountain View, California …
moving there at age 10 in 1950 with dear family (from San Francisco).
In early 1965, met a wonderful Dutch woman named Grace Heeger, operating a pre-school in Los Altos/Palo Alto. She had headed a kindergarten in Holland and – over the years, learned she had worked with the Dutch underground during WWII.
Then connection lost prior to her passing –
ever hoped to connect with her niece,
Johanna Buisman, who had also worked at the preschool.
Grietje Blei
4/30/1914 – 1/1/68
Interred: Alta Mesa, Palo Alto 1/4/1968
Grietje Blei: Her name
(San Antonio Pre-school – Grace Heeger, as I knew her.)
Your writing inspires reflection.
Now living in Nevada City – across from the Veterans’ Building, Tina Lindeboom is a dear connection.
I look to review your extensive further –
I imagine how special would be to hear you speak with the local historical society …
All best wishes,
Cathy
I have the powder horn of a Frederick
Bollinger dated 1814. He was the son
of Isaac Bollinger who lived in Pittsburg.
It was given to the youngest son of
Elizabeth Dunn nee. Bollinger. The
son’s name was Frederick Dunn.
Dear Mr. Dunn,
Thank you for sharing this information. Because of when my Bollinger (Bolinger) ancestors arrived in the US (my direct ancestors arrived in 1827 and a younger brother three years earlier), it seems unlikely that the owner of the powder horn was related to us. At least not closely.
Best wishes,
Bruce Bolinger
I was very touched by this site, as I am a great admirer of your father’s work, and in particular of his approach to the study of intonation, of which I have had much benefit in my own work.
I was also touched, because I recently made a site about my own father, who was a professor of theology, and I felt a similar spirit in your site, both in design and content (the site is https://www.gerritvanleeuwen.net – in Dutch I am afraid).
Thank you for doing this.
Theo van Leeuwen