Richard Bolte Sr. dies

Richard J. Bolte Sr., a former Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commissioner, died earlier this week due to a lingering illness. He was 72.

Mr. Bolte joined the Commission in December of 2004 and served with distinction until his resignation in early 2006. He always asked thoughtful, probing questions to racetrack applicants, racetrack managers, and anyone else who came before the Commission, and always had the welfare of the horse uppermost in his mind.

Mr. Bolte earned a degree in business administration from LaSalle University in his native Philadelphia, and later received a doctorate in Humane Letters from Mt. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he formerly sat on the Board of Regents.

In 1966, Mr. Bolte established his own logistics company which provided international shipping services, and in 1972 he launched BDP International, which operates in more than 140 countries and has more than 20 offices in the United States. BDP, among the pioneers in computerization of land, air, and ocean transportation, is now a major international corporation, and in 1998 it received the Excellence in Logistics Award from Transportation and Distribution.

Mr. Bolte owned harness horses for 30 years, many in partnership with Arthur Pronti. In 1999 his Washington VC won the Coors Delvin Miller Adios at The Meadows in Pennsylvania after having been given two masterful drives by Dave Palone in the state’s richest harness race.

Last year, Bolte’s wife Patricia was a partner in Palone Ranger, one of the top 2-year-old pacing colts in North America.

Visitation will be offered this coming Sunday, between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. (EDT) at the McChesney Funeral Home in Moorestown N.J. A requiem mass will be said the next day, at 10:30 a.m., at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Moorestown; burial will follow at St. Dominic’s Cemetery, in Philadelphia.

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers contribution be made to the Mount St. Mary’s Scholarship Fund, in memory of Richard Bolte. Mount St. Mary is located in Emmitsburg, Md. (Pennsylvania State Harness Racing Commission)

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