Caroline Corkey Bollinger, a clinical social worker for 52 years, died Feb. 22 of natural causes. She was 73.
Bollinger was found in her Denver home after she didn’t show up for a meeting that day, said her nephew, Dr. William Corkey of Raleigh, N.C.
A service is planned at 2:30 p.m. today at Fairmount Mortuary.
“She was an amazing lady,” said Dr. Michael Weissberg, who met Bollinger when she was in the psychiatric emergency room at what was then called Colorado General Hospital.
“She was the most sensible, calm person — kind, thoughtful and respectful to patients,” said Weissberg, a psychiatrist and executive vice chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of Colorado medical school.
“She could be calm even when patients were cussing her,” said Ina Mae Denham of Denver, a clinical social worker.
“She was an excellent clinician” specializing in children and families, said Marilyn Hellerstein of Greenwood Village, a clinical social worker in private practice. “She had so much energy.”
Bollinger was a survivor. She and her brother and their parents were imprisoned by the Japanese when Japan invaded China in the 1940s. Several years ago Bollinger was struck with Guillain-Barre syndrome, the result of a flu shot, said a friend and colleague, Margaret Roath of Denver. Guillain-Barre attacks the nervous system and often leaves a weakness in legs and arms.
“She faced every adversity with an incredible proactive attitude,” said Roath, an assistant clinical professor at the CU medical school.
Bollinger “was a good teacher, a good supervisor of interns and spent a great deal of time with patients,” Roath said.
Bollinger was in private practice and taught at the CU medical center.
She was active in Denver Sister Cities International “and had a global view of the world,” said her niece, Allison Corkey of Minneapolis.
Caroline Louise Corkey was born in China on June 13, 1936, to American missionaries: Dr. Elizabeth Corkey, a medical doctor, and the Rev. William Corkey, a Presbyterian minister.
When the Japanese invaded China during World War II, the Corkey family, along with all other foreigners, were imprisoned for more than two years.
Caroline Corkey was 10 when the family was released.
She graduated from high school in Pennsylvania and earned degrees at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., and her doctorate in social work at Smith College.
She did social work in North Carolina before moving to Denver.
She married Jay Bollinger, who died in 2008. They had no children.
In addition to her niece and nephew, she is survived by her brother, David Corkey of Raleigh, N.C.
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