Donald George Bollinger was the founder of Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana, who was from 1986 to 1988 the state chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party.
Background
After Bollinger graduated in 1932 amid the Great Depression from Lockport High School, now Central Lafourche High School, his father, George I. Bollinger, taught him and his three brothers, Dick, George, and Ralph, the mechanics of shipbuilding.
Career
He was affectionately called "the Happy Republican". Alex Barker, the senior Bollinger"s employer, became a mentor to young Donald. In 1979, Bollinger contributed $73,000 either individually or through his shipbuilding enterprises to Republican gubernatorial candidate United States. Representative David C. Treen of Louisiana"s 3rd congressional district.
In 1986, he became the state Republican chairman in a divisive campaign that unseated the seven-year incumbent, George Despot, an oilman from Shreveport.
In 1986, under Bollinger"s tutelage, the Louisiana Grand Old Party failed to elect United States. Representative Henson Moore of Louisiana"s 6th congressional district to succeed the retiring Democratic United States. Senator Russell B. Long. Bollinger stepped down as chairman in 1988 and was succeeded by another veteran of the Treen administration, William "Billy" Nungesser of New Orleans.
Nungesser"s son, Billy Nungesser, became President of Plaquemines Parish. Coincidentally, Nungesser"s company, General Marine and Catering, serviced the offshore industry for which Bollinger built the ships.
Pope Paul VI awarded him the Papal Meda
Bollinger remained active in his Gulf Coast marine businesses until his retirement in 1989. Bollinger was married three times, to Doris Toups Bollinger (1913-1986), to Fanella Lalande Bollinger (died 1988) and Patricia Boudreaux Bollinger. The Donald G. Bollinger Memorial Student Union at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish is named in Bollinger"s honor.
Donald and Doris Bollinger had two daughters, Charlotte Bollinger (born 1947) and Andrea Bollinger (born c 1951), one son, Donald Thomas Bollinger, known as "Boysie" Bollinger (born September 11, 1949), who became the chairman and chief executive officer of Bollinger Shipyards.
Boysie Bollinger was a delegate to the 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, and the 2004 Republican National Conventions. However, he was also a supporter of Democrat United States. Senator Mary Landrieu and cut a television commercial in 2014 for Landrieu in her unsuccessful bid for a fourth term against the Republican United States. Representative Bill Cassidy of the 6th congressional district, based about Baton Rouge.
In 2016, Boysie Bollinger was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.
Membership
In 1980, he joined the Treen administration, the first Republican governorship since Reconstruction, as the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections, a member of the governor"s cabinet.