Meet Mike Bollen!

Mike Bollen has joined a growing number of new residents who are continuing to travel between a previous residence and their new digs at Sunnyside.  In this case, new “digs” is quite descriptive, since Mike lives at 1475 Glenside Drive and is currently overseeing the construction of a new sunroom addition to his new home.  Mike has sold his home in northern Virginia, but is still working full-time at his position as a research scientist supporting the DOD Defense Threat-Reduction Agency.  He describes this as a transition time when he is mentoring others to assume his responsibilities there. 

Mike already has Sunnyside connections since his son David is married to Bill Compton’s daughter Kathy – according to Mike that makes Mike and Bill “out-laws”!  He plans on moving full-time to Sunnyside in a year or so.  In the meantime, he travels to Sunnyside on week-ends once or twice a month.  He brought some of his woodworking tools with him and is enjoying this frequent peaceful respite in the Valley.  He also looks forward to taking a trip to Italy and Sicily with JMU’s Lifelong Learning Institute in the fall, as well as a river boat trip on the Ohio River. 

Mike was born in Des Moines but spent much of his growing up years in the bay area of California.  He received an undergraduate degree in physics and a graduate degree in engineering from UC-Davis.  After that he moved to the DC area.  He has four children and six grandchildren.  Son David is a manager in information technology for a non-profit; he and his wife Kathy have two daughters ages 1½ and 3 and live in Arlington.  Daughter Michelle lives in Arlington and works for a non-profit writing technical manuals for AV equipment.  Daughter Rebecca has four children ages 6-12 and lives in the DC/Baltimore area.  Daughter Catherine and her husband live in Boise, Idaho. 

In addition to his traveling and woodworking, Mike enjoys readying fiction and is starting to trace the Bollen family genealogy.  But when I asked him what others might not know about him, Mike said he was most proud of helping to found Ad Fontes Academy, a private school in northern Virginia providing a classical Christian education.  The academy began in the mid-90s with Grades 9-12 and now operates as a K-12 school.  Three of Mike’s four children graduated from there.

Please join me in welcoming Mike Bollen to the Sunnyside campus!

--Linda Bradley