Interviewer(s): D. Austin. Lockport, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

In addition to her position at Bollinger's, Charlotte is active in various community organizations. I interviewed her when I was investigating educational issues in southern Louisiana for the baseline study we conducted in 1997. When I called her to ask if she would be willing to do an oral history interview, she invited me to come over within the hour. I met her in her office and we talked for a while and then went to her house for lunch.

Charlotte Bollinger is the Executive Vice President of Bollinger's Shipyards, located on Bayou Lafourche. Bollinger's was started in 1946 when Charlotte's father, Donald, was willed $10,000 by the owner of the company for which he and his father had been working. Donald moved his family to Bayou Lafourche in 1960, and Charlotte grew up in the shipyard. She married and raised three children and then went to work for the company in 1984. Since its inception, the shipyard has been involved in building vessels for the offshore oil and gas industry. In the 1980s the company began building patrol boats and has built the entire fleets of both the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy.