Coral Gordon Bolin, devoted physician who practiced medicine in Baltimore from 1933 to her retirement in 1990, died on the 15th of December in Timonium, Maryland.
She was born on a farm in Smithfield, Utah, the second daughter and one of nine children to Foster John and Isabell Meikle Gordon. She was taught to value hard work and education.Graduating from Utah State University in 1926 with a degree in chemistry, she taught school in Blanding, Utah, in Weston, Idaho, and in Smithfield.
In 1929, she followed her sister to medical school and graduated from the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia in 1933. She interned at the Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. On December 23 of that year, she married James Joseph Bolin. They subsequently moved to Pikesville where she began her practice of medicine and commuted into Baltimore to work as a physician at Western High School.
In 1938, she moved her practice into Baltimore. Through the war years, she maintained an additional office in Armstead Gardens. She had medical privileges at Maryland General Hospital, Franklin Square, Lutheran and North Charles General Hospitals. It was estimated that by 1976, she had delivered 6500 babies. In several families she delivered three generations of children.
Twice she served as president of Branch 3 of the Women's Medical Assoc., four years as its treasurer, and two years as its secretary. She was a member of the American Medical Assoc., the national and local American Women's Medical Assoc., and a life member of the Southern Women's Medical Assoc. She was also on the Legislative Commission of the National Women's Medical Society in Washington, D.C.
During the busiest years of her medical practice, she still found time to share happy moments with her husband and three children, traveling with them to places of historical interest on the east coast as well as returning to renew ties in Utah. She also maintained an active interest in genealogy and drove throughout the Maryland countryside researching various church records to make them available to the public. She was a member of the MD Historical Society, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Utah Historical Genealogical Society.
She was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She valued her heritage and strong family ties. In her later years she enjoyed attending rehearsals and concerts of the Mormon Choir of Washington.
On October 12, 1976, she was honored for her fifty years of medical service at a banquet given by her patients and friends. She was presented a plaque identical to one placed in Maryland General Hospital's Obstetrics Wing. "In recognition of her outstanding contribution to the medical profession and her unselfish dedication in the field of family practice.
She is survived by her son, James Joseph Bolin, Jr. of Sterling, Virg.; and her daughters, Coral Bolin Crosby of Charlottsville, Virg.; and Joan Bolin Cutler of Eugene Oregon. She has nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
The family will receive friends in the Lemmon Funeral Home of Dulaney Valley Inc., 10 W. Padonia Rd. (at York Rd.), Timonium-Cockeysville on Sunday from 2 to 5 and 6 to 8 p.m. and in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1400 Dulaney Valley Rd., Towson on Monday, December 19, from 10 to 11 a.m. at which time services will be held. Interment, Baltimore National Cemetery.
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