David R. Boldt, 73, formerly of Chestnut Hill, who served as both editorial page editor and editor of the Sunday magazine during his 28 years at The Philadelphia Inquirer, died April 12 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Pasadena, Calif.
Mr. Boldt joined the Inquirer staff as a reporter in 1972 and was part of the Inquirer team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for its coverage of the 1979 nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island power plant. He also received a citation for excellence from the Overseas Press Club for his reporting on the Islamic revolution in Iran.
But it was as an opinion editor who frequently challenged conventional thinking and as head of the magazine that won Pulitzer Prizes for feature photography that Mr. Boldt is best remembered at the Inquirer.
Before leaving the Inquirer in 2000, he wrote a political column and also taught undergraduate and graduate courses as an adjunct professor at Temple University.
Born in New York City, he received a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth University.
In 2001 Mr. Boldt and his wife, the former Kelly Clark, moved to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where she worked at Nur University and he taught history in a private school. He also advised newspaper staffs in Bolivia and Peru under the auspices of the International Center for Journalists and taught news writing at the American School in Santa Cruz.
Receiving a cancer diagnosis in February, he returned to the United States and settled near family in California.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Julia; a son, Thomas A.; a brother and sister, and a granddaughter. Mr. Boldt's first wife, Fereshta Sarshar, died in 1989. Services were pending. – WF
