A Prayer and Remembrance Service for the late J. Donald Bostrom will be held tomorrow Wednesday February 4 at the Lohman Funeral Home from 6:30 -8:00 p.m. A Funeral Mass will follow at 11:00 a.m. Thursday at Prince of Peace Catholic Church. Interment will follow immediately at the family plot in Hillside Cemetery. Mr. Bostrom passed away peacefully at 7:20 a.m. Sunday February 1 at Bridgeview Nursing Center. After residing happily at Ormond in the Pines Mr. Bostrom transferred to Bridgeview ten days ago when his health started to deteriorate taking the room next to the one where his wife Mary passed away four months and three weeks ago. He was cared for medically by Dr. Sanford Kinne and Volusia Hospice and spiritually by Father Ron Oser of Prince of Peace Catholic Church and Father Queen of St. Brendan's who administered the last rites on Saturday. As a young boy Don lived at the family home Bosarve among the huge Bostrom Oaks that still line Riverside Drive on the family property which covered 180 acres stretching from river to ocean. John D. Rockefeller wintered in the Casements down the block and when the heat failed in the Casements one winter Mr. Rockefeller stayed briefly at Bosarve. He repaid the Bostrom family by inviting the Bostrom children to a Christmas Party. This was the beginning of a tradition of Casements Christmas parties for Ormond children. The event was commemorated in rotogavures published in the Sunday New York Herald Examiner and a copy showing himself sitting on Mr. Rockefeller's knee remained one of Don's prized possession throughout his life. The young Mr. Bostrom attended Seabreeze High School but did graduate. Rather he distinguished himself as a talented sportsman and artist becoming a sign painter for many businesses in Ormond Beach. He was deeply involved with the early beach racing scene with his friend Bill France Sr hand-painting the letters and numbers on the cars and creating and running the scoreboard that showed the standing of the cars during races. Once rising to second place in the state standings as a tennis player Don also was a tennis pro at the Hotel Ormond where he made many future business contacts. One of these led him away from Florida to produce all the signage for the Florida State Exhibition at the 1934 Worlds Fair in New York City.
After the Fair Don moved to Chicago where he met and married Mary Jean Kelley with whom he had six children - Donna Marie Holm of Halifax NS; John Donald Bostrom of Staten Island NY; Christine Golden of Ojai CA; Robert Kenneth Bostrom of Duxbury MA; Thomas David Bostrom of Ojai CA; and James Joseph Bostrom of Ormond Beach. Jim and his wife Bonnie moved to Ormond Beach in 2001 to help care for Don and Mary and all six siblings are in town for the services. After a few years in Chicago dabbling in insurance and working as a tennis pro Mr. Bostrom moved to the Milwaukee area to pursue a career in the sign industry. There he became Scoutmaster for West Allis Troop 595 which he transformed into the largest troop in the area. He returned to Chicago in 1956 to work for Poster Products Inc which had at contract with Sears Roebuck for all their new plastic signage. One day when someone accidentally left a screwdriver in a vacuum mold for a plastic sign Mr. Bostrom had an "Aha! moment." He began building a heating and forming unit for clear vinyl from an old vacuum cleaner in his basement. Thus was invented the clear vinyl plastic bubble that gives stability to the clear covers of bakery goods salads and fruit seen everywhere in supermarkets. When he took the results of his experiments to Poster he was made Manager of a new division Poster Packaging . Within two years it was three times bigger than the original company and was bought by corporate giants Illinois Tool Works and then 3M. There are 23 patents in Mr. Bostrom's name including the vinyl plastic bubble plastic serving trays and heat sealing machines for commercial and residential use. Corporate politics however were not kind to this Southern boy and after several years of being "pushed upstairs" to Marketing Mr. Bostrom found himself in his early sixties pushed out of the corporate structure and having to start over from scratch. Considered too old and "overqualified" for most companies he was forced to make ends meet by installing and collecting quarters from KiddieRama cartoon booths in mall entrances. In his typical style within five years he had built a new business cleaning and repairing parts for KiddieRama operators across the entire national franchise. Meanwhile he had re-packaged himself as an engineering consultant and in 1978 was hired as Senior Projects Engineer by Kendall Corporation of Augusta Georgia the country's second-biggest manufacturer of hospital supplies. Particularly adept at using air pressure to control the production of delicate materials he was considered an indispensible resource to company operations. An avid golfer he also loved attending the Masters.
His roots however were calling. In 1986 Mr. Bostrom retired and returned with Mary to resettle in Ormond Beach where he began devoting himself to the preservation of early Ormond history. He wrote a memoir of his days as a boy in Ormond Beach
Climb a Tree and Holler and arranged for monument at Bosarve from the National Register of Historic Places. He became deeply involved in the Ormond Beach Historical Society. As President he oversaw the acquisition of the Three Chimneys Sugar Mill Ruin property negotiated with the City of Ormond for the Society to run the Welcome Center for citizens and visitor established the annual Birthplace of Speed festivals including the the 2003 Birthplace of Speed Centennial began the Scenic Trolley Tours and supervised the deeding of the Anderson Price Memorial Building from the Ormond Beach Women's Club to the Historical Society. He also initiated the production of the quarterly newsletter and several books including Images of America: Ormond Beach and the revised edition of Speed on Sand. Along the way he enlisted more people than can be named here in the cause of preserving Ormond Beach history. In 1995 Mr. Bostrom was awarded an honorary diploma by Seabreeze High School one of the proudest moments in his life. Even after retiring from the Historical Society Mr. Bostrom continued giving Scenic Trolley Tours enriching the experience of thousands of Ormond area students residents and visitors. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations in Mr. Bostrom's name be made to the Ormond Beach Historical Society and to Hospice Care of Volusia County. Condolences can be shared with the family at www.lohmanfuneralhomes.com. Arrangements are under the careful direction of Lohman Funeral Home Ormond.