Bolt, Al Lee
Our beloved father and husband Al Lee Bolt passed away on March 18, 2024, while visiting Charleston, South Carolina, from complications due to a stroke he suffered eleven days before.
He was born and raised in Willis, Virginia, in Floyd County, and was a southern gentleman through and through. His curiosity about the world around him led him to study world languages at Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia. Upon graduation, he was hired by Fairfax County Public Schools as a World Language Teacher at W.T. Woodson High School. After two years he took a sabbatical from teaching to serve as a volunteer for the United States Peace Corps. In 1965, he was sent to Valle Bajo, Bolivia, a small, rural farming town, with the mission of teaching agricultural practices to the local farmers. However, he saw a more urgent need for this town. He initiated, and carried out, a clean water project that brought cleaner, safer water to a central location for the residents of this town. From that point on he was known as “the man who brought us water”. During this time, he also met and married Sonia, who lived in Samaipata, a nearby town. After two years in Bolivia, in 1967, he and his new bride returned to the United States to resume his teaching career and to start a family.
He was a respected and admired teacher at W.T. Woodson High School and Lake Braddock Secondary School for 31 years where he taught Spanish, French, and German. As a teacher, and as a father, his integrity never wavered. He was happiest traveling to any place in the world, camping at the beach, socializing with friends, and spending time with his family.
He and Sonia raised three children, María, Jon, and Mark. Our memories are filled with Volkswagen vans full of camping gear, meals around picnic tables, summer birthday parties, laughter, Thanksgivings in Willis, and mass every Sunday.
In addition to his wife and three children, he leaves behind his grandchildren, Alex, Ben, Marek, Jesse, Addison, and Scout, his daughters- and son-in-law Karen, Mary Anne, and Edo, and his sister Helen. We will all do our best to live up to the example he set for us.
Sonia and family ask for donations to St. Jude’s children’s Research Hospital in lieu of flowers. You can share in honor of Al at the Al Lee Bolt St. Jude Memorial Fund.