Carl Bolch, Jr.

Carl Bolch, Jr., was a vibrant member of The Michael J. Fox Foundation’s Patient Council and the former Chief Executive Officer of RaceTrac Petroleum, Inc. He passed away on Friday, December 26, 2025, at the age of 82.  

For 50 years, Carl led RaceTrac, a third-generation family business operating gas stations and convenience stores across the Southern United States. After retiring as CEO in 2012, he continued to shape the Atlanta-based company’s direction as Executive Chairman until 2024 and later as Chairman Emeritus until his passing. Under his stewardship, RaceTrac grew into one of the country’s largest privately held companies, with more than 800 RaceTrac and RaceWay retail locations, 1,200 Gulf-branded locations and 445 Potbelly neighborhood sandwich shops throughout the U.S.  

Carl’s influence extended beyond RaceTrac. He served as both president of the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America and chairman of the National Association of Convenience Stores. A dedicated community leader, he sat on the Atlanta Rotary Club board for over 25 years. Carl earned his undergraduate degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and his Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law.  

A longtime champion of MJFF, Carl joined the Foundation’s Patient Council in 2012, lending his perspective to this advisory group of individuals with Parkinson’s disease and care partners who help shape the Foundation’s work. Inspired by his father, Carl Sr., who lived with Parkinson’s, and his own diagnosis in 2007, he fully embraced its mission to accelerate scientific breakthroughs. Together with his wife, Susan, and their children, Carl made MJFF and the advancement of Parkinson’s research a central pillar of the family’s philanthropic vision, helping to raise more than $10 million in the last 10 years. 

The MJFF Patient Council was established in March 2009 as a formal channel for the Foundation to solicit input from PD patients and the broader Parkinson's community. The Council advises the Foundation on programmatic fronts including (but not limited to) strategies to best convey patient priorities to the research community and its funders; content and emphasis for patient education and outreach relevant to MJFF's mission to find a cure; patient roles in developing novel ways to conduct research; and mechanisms for impact assessment.