INSET BELOW: Bernd Schulte
OCEAN RIDGE — After a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Bernd Anton Schulte died peacefully at his home in Ocean Ridge on April 15. Mr. Schulte was born on Aug. 28, 1942, to German parents residing in Sofia, Bulgaria, joining a growing family that would eventually total five children. At a young age he and his family immigrated to Manhasset and Brookville, N.Y., where he graduated from Jericho High School.
On one of several road trips the family visited the American West, where a teenage Bernd fell in love with Montana. Summer jobs as a young wrangler in Montana turned into college in Missoula, and a lifelong commitment to the University of Montana, the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and the Montana Grizzlies.
After graduation in 1965, Mr. Schulte started his distinguished business career with W.R. Grace & Co. in New York City, beginning as an intern and culminating as head of business development.
Shortly after joining Grace, Mr. Schulte served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1966 to ’68. Upon his return, he continued his lifelong career with Grace, which took him to the restaurant operations of Far West Services in Newport Beach, Calif., for 17 years, then back to Grace corporate headquarters in New York, and ultimately, as part of the Grace headquarters relocation in 1991, to Boca Raton. There he retired in 1999 as a corporate vice president and executive responsible for the general development group. During more than three decades he excelled in the business of finance, traveling the world to identify business opportunities and executing the multibillion-dollar merger and acquisition strategy for this global Fortune 50 conglomerate. He was also instrumental in implementing Grace’s divestment program and was a confidant to corporate executive management.
In retirement, he became an avid golfer, redoubled his commitment to the University of Montana Alumnae Association and Greek Task Force, coordinated the activities of Grace’s Florida Alumni Association, and immersed himself in Ocean Ridge’s government, serving his community for several years as a town commissioner and vice mayor. He also actively participated with the Washington, D.C.-based Defense Orientation Conference Association, joining members on many of their trips around the world to U.S. military installations.
Mr. Schulte’s every involvement produced profound, long-lasting friendships that blessed him throughout his life. Recognizing the importance of so many people in his life, his family is deeply appreciative of the immeasurable outpouring of kindness shown to them by his many friends and former colleagues.
He leaves behind his wife, the former Marie-Christine Noel, and son Peter. He was preceded in death by his brother, Uve Hublitz, and sister, Antje Fong, and leaves behind sisters Doris Wetzel and Karin Barnaby in New York, and sister-in-law Beatrice Noel in Miami.
Mr. Schulte will be interred at the Boca Raton Mausoleum following a private service. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to Trust Bridge, or Hospice of Palm Beach Foundation, at 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407.
— Obituary submitted by the family
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