Bolinger Leaves Behind Legacy of Love

There is always that one teacher. That one teacher who you will remember as you go on to pursue your career, as you continue on your life journey. The one who may bring a smile to your face and a warm place in your heart.

The teacher you learned the most from, even if that one teacher may have seemed from time to time, to be “as tough as nails”.

Voncile Ann Bolinger was one of those teachers.

Bolinger passed away in 2021 at the age of 83, and now, thanks to her great love of kids and education, many will continue to benefit for years to come. Grant County Community Foundation Executive Director Judith Keusler was recently notified that Bolinger’s love of kids was to become a legacy of giving.

“She was a good teacher and taught generations of students,” Keusler said. “Her passion was education.”

Bolinger taught for three years in Hoisington, Kans., before coming to Ulysses where she taught for 40 more years at the elementary level in the USD 214 school system for many years. She taught first grade at Sullivan Elementary, retiring during the 2002-2003 school year.

“She was an excellent teacher and a good and loyal friend,” Keusler said.

Bolinger never married and never had children of her own. Her love of children, education, and the Ulysses community was never far from her thoughts.

“In her last will, Voncile set aside a legacy gift to fund scholarships for students from Grant County,” Keusler said. “She wanted to give a meaningful scholarship and provided the money to make it happen.”

The Voncile Bolinger Scholarship Fund will fund its very first scholarship this spring, according to Keusler.

“It will provide a $2,500 scholarship that can be renewed up to three times over a four-year term. We will give out two per year,” Keusler explained, adding the monies are actually the result of Bolinger and her siblings, Joyce and Glen, who also never married.

“All three of them are gone now,” Keusler said. “This is a combination of all three estates. We were notified by an attorney handling the estates. This family is impacting many for years to come. Voncile impacted many and she is still impacting people. This endowment should carry on for many years to come. It will last longer than many of us will - it’s a true legacy.”

Sharon Garey, who retired in 2021 after 40 years of teaching herself, knew and worked with Bolinger.

“Voncile was always happy and she had a contagious laugh,” said fGarey. “She was gruff, but she loved kids. She wanted them to behave.”

Garey, who also taught at Sullivan Elementary, said Bolinger was one of those teachers who had stacks upon stacks of papers in her classroom.

“But she always knew where everything was,” Garey added. 

Garey fondly remembered Bolinger’s love of McDonalds.

“She had diabetes,” Garey said. “She would go and get a McDonald’s ice cream cone, put it upside down in a cup and then put it in the freezer to eat for later.”

According to those who spoke at Bolinger’s funeral in June 2021, Bolinger herself attended a one-room country school house, Pleasant Valley, that was located a mile and a half from her family’s farm where she grew up in rural Kingman County, Kans. She and her sister, Joyce, would ride their pony, Cricket, to school every day. They described her as a “Shy child who enjoyed playing with her dolls, coloring and reading.”

Growing up, Bolinger participated in plays and musical productions, track meets, softball, math and spelling contests and she learned to play the piano.

“One time in the second grade, she had her first piano recital,” said a speaker at her funeral services. “When the audience didn’t applaud her performance, she promptly turned around and played the piece again. The audience applauded the second time around.”

While in Ulysses, she was a member of the Baptist Church, where she also played the piano.

Bolinger was always very active. She was a member of the Venita Happy Hearts 4-H Club, where she learned to cook and sew.

Friends at her service in 2021, noted that Bolinger looked forward each year to entering her creations in county 4-H fairs.

“She once entered the style review at Kingman County 4-H fair where she won grand champion,” they said. “The win afforded her the opportunity to go to the Kansas State Fair where she placed second. Her hobbies followed her in to her adult life. A few years before she retired and her move back to Cheney, she entered the whole wheat bread contest at the Grant County Fair in Ulysses.”

Bolinger took home a first place ribbon for her “bread winning” efforts.

She also played in the band while in school at Cheney High School, where she graduated in 1956 as salutatorian of her class.

“She played the Alto saxophone in the high school band,” friends noted. “She was a member of the saxophone ensemble. She would practice her saxophone while sitting on the front porch of her house. If she made a mistake, the neighbor boy - about a quarter mile away - would honk the horn of a pickup.”

Another hobby Bolinger loved was knitting.

“She loved to knit,” friends said. “Some times she would take her knitting projects to ballgames and you didn’t want to sit next to her because if she got excited - well, let’s just say those knitting needles could be kind of dangerous.”

Bolinger even knitted throughout the movie “Gone With The Wind” when it first came out.

She attended college at Southwestern College in Winfield where she graduated with a degree in elementary education in 1960. She received her teaching certificate in 1961. She was a longtime member of the UCC church in Cheney. When she retired, she moved back to the farm near Cheney to live with her brother and sister and attended the TUCC church in Cheney, where she stayed involved helping get food ready for the fair booth and baking pies. Her faith, friends say, “was amazing”. Bolinger was also a member of Eastern Star and Rebecca’s/Noble Grand, Tops and gas club. She passed away at Wheatland Heath Care Center, June 12, 2021 where she had been a resident since Oct 2019.

Friends say this dedicated teacher loved life.

“She was always telling stories about her former students,” they said. “She was a loving, compassionate woman. She loved each and every one of her students just like she loved each and every one of her family. Her life is truly an example for all to follow.”

Keusler was appreciative of the legacy Bolinger left behind.

“Thank you Voncile for caring about the education of UHS graduates for many years in the future,” Keusler said. “It is a wonderful, lasting legacy of caring and supporting her passion for students and education.”

How To Apply For Bolinger Scholarship

The criteria for the scholarships is as follows:

•Scholarships to graduates of Ulysses High School who are entering or continuing in the medical or educational fields.

•Two scholarships of $2,500 each with up to 3 years of renewals provided the student continues to be a full-time student and maintains at least a 3.0 GPA.   

Applications are due on or before March 31. The application will be available on the Grant County Community Foundation website (www.grantccf.org) or at the GCCF office.

If you would like to consider leaving a legacy of your own to support a charitable interest that is dear to your heart for generations to come, it is not hard to do.  It just takes a little foresight and planning to establish such a legacy gift and if you would like to start now to establish this fund, you can put in a little money each year, with the bulk to come later from your estate.  That way you can make annual grants and watch your investment make a difference now for your favorite charity.

Just call the Grant County Community Foundation office at 620-356-4223 or Judy Keusler at 620-353-4287 if you would like to know more about how to set up your own legacy fund.  Grant County Community Foundation can help you to make your vision a reality.