Very few people break new ground in fields as diverse as engineering and the ministry but Gloria Bolden has.The Charlotte resident was the first African American female
to graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering at UNC Charlotte in 1978 and then was the first African American woman to be ordained by the Charlotte Presbytery.
Bolden is part-time pastor at St.Paul Presbyterian Church, part-time chaplain at Barber-Scotia College in Concord and a full-time religion professor.
"Balancing all that doesn't seem to be a problem because I really love what I'm doing," she said. "I enjoy how the members of my church minister to me as I minister to them and God
takes care of all of us. It's a three-part covenant."
Bolden, who has been at St. Paul since Nov. 1998, has been making an impact in a lot of different ways for a long time.
As a little girl growing up in the 1960s and Œ70s, she decided she wanted to be an engineer. After a stint in the Air Force and North Carolina A&T State University, she
transferred to UNC Charlotte. Bolden admits the row was not easy to hoe.
"I like engineering but the social aspect of the major was very difficult," she said. "There was
a lack of study group activity for me because the majority of my classmates were white males who maybe had a father or grandfather that was an engineer. It was during those study
groups that a lot of the classroom work was integrated and sometimes the professors would stop by the groups."
While ostracized by her engineering classmates, Bolden was also having trouble finding time
to spend with black classmates because of the time she had to spend on her studies. She credits professors such as Herman Thomas and Bertha Roddey who reached out to black
students for keeping her going. She said they would send notes to the students and ask them to stop by their office to make sure they were OK.
After graduating in 1978, Bolden began working at Catalytic Inc. as a mechanical engineer. Once again, she ran across difficulties fitting in as a African American woman.
"As the female, it was assumed that I would make the coffee. There was a time when I said I didn't drink coffee because I didn't want to make it," she said. "But I enjoyed working at the
company and after the company closed, I went to work at Phillip Morris. I enjoyed that experience as well because there was other professional black people around."
But God was trying to tell Bolden something and she decided to enter the ministry in 1992. She had been taking lay classes around Charlotte but in July 1994, decided to commit
herself full time by taking classes at the Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.
"My family thought I was have a nervous breakdown. They couldn't understand how I could
leave a job for no job," she said. "My family couldn't understand why I was doing this but God's pull was there and this was something I had to do."
The decision put a strain on her marriage to husband Eugene. He and the couple's children stayed behind in Charlotte while Bolden, her youngest child and mother went to Georgia.
The couple would see each other on the weekend.
After graduating from the seminary, Bolden did an internship at C.N. Jenkins Presbyterian under the Rev. Jerry L. Cannon before being offered the position at St. Paul.
Bolden said going from engineering to the ministry has been a satisfying journey and she learned from her internship.
"To me, a good minister is one who prays, listen and maintains a relationship with the
members," she said. "But the important thing is the ministry of presence because sometimes members just need the minister to be there for them."
