Joan Bolger

Joan Maureen Bolger (née Riddell; born 1942) is a New Zealand community leader. She is the widow of Jim Bolger, who served as the prime minister of New Zealand between 1990 and 1997.

Biography Bolger was born Joan Maureen Riddell in 1942. She trained and qualified as a schoolteacher, before marrying Jim Bolger at Pungarehu on 25 May 1963.

During the early years of her husband's political career, Bolger was mainly involved in raising the couple's children, and looking after the family home and farm near Te Kūiti. As the children grew and her husband climbed the political ladder, she began to take an increasing role in public life. Initially, she carried out National Party duties in her husband's King Country electorate in his absence, but later became more involved in party affairs nationally as her husband became party leader, leader of the Opposition and eventually prime minister in 1990. As the wife of the prime minister, she frequently accompanied her husband on official visits abroad and carried out many official duties. She also found herself in demand as a public speaker, often giving talks about her overseas trips and the human side of human relations,

During the 1993 general election campaign, Bolger had a melanoma removed, but returned to campaigning within two days.

In 1997, Bolger formally commissioned the frigate HMNZS Te Kaha into the Royal New Zealand Navy. Later that year, she accompanied the Māori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, to a conference on moral re-armament in Switzerland, where they both spoke in a private capacity about the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process.

Bolger accompanied her husband in Washington, D.C. during his tenure there as New Zealand's ambassador to the United States between 1998 and 2002.

Since 2013, the Bolgers have lived in Waikanae.

Honours and awards In 1990, Bolger was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, and three years later she received the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.