I was born in Santo Tomas Hospital in Panama City, Republic of Panama in January 1935. As noted on the previous page, I have dual citizenship in the U.S. and Panama. I have a Panamanian "cedula" which is my I.D. for Panama showing that I am a Panamanian citizen and making me eligible for any job in Panama. I also have a U.S. passport to prove that I am a U.S. citizen. Not complicated at all!!!
My family was intimately involved in the building and operation of the Panama Canal from its beginnings in 1906 to current day (2011) where a cousin and Civil Engineer, Jorge de la Guardia, working for the ACP (Panama Canal Authority) is the Chief of the Lock Expansion Program now underway and to be completed in 2014.
My maternal grandfather, Richard Dinger, was an electrical engineer brought over to Panama from Germany by an electrical engineering firm that had a contract from the U.S. Government to develop and install the hydroelectric power systems for both the Atlantic and Pacific sides, all the residential areas, and the three sets of lock systems. He met and married my grandmother, Clara Gonzalez de la Guardia, a member of a prominent family in Panama, but very sorrowfully, when his contract was over on the Panama Canal about nine years later, he went back to Germany and abandoned my grandmother who had two children to care for by then, my mother and her brother. They never heard from him again.
My maternal step-grandfather, Edward Galliher, a giant of a man and a Civil Engineer, was brought to Panama by the Chief Engineer for the building of the Panama Canal, John Stevens, and began work on the Canal in 1906. He became acquainted with my maternal grandfather Richard Dinger through their working on the Canal and became aware of the situation that my maternal grandfather created. Some years later, he obtained a divorce for my grandmother from Richard Dinger and then he married grandmother and took over responsibility for the family from that time.
Mr. Galliher was later was to become the Chief of the Building Division for the entire Panama Canal, responsible for the building of all the homes in the residential areas and the commercial/government facilties and offices throughout the Canal Zone. Everyone loved him especially the Panamanian businessmen and government leaders. He learned Spanish so well that he could speak fluently. The Panamanian government officials spent a lot of time at our home that Granddad had built at the beach, talking and arguing about politics and other interesting subjects. As I grew older, I sat off to the side and listened to these discussions and learned a lot about Panama and its politics.
Mr. Galliher, retired from the Panama Canal in 1934, the year before I was born and moved to the property he had purchased right on the ocean just outside the main part of Panama City in an area called San Francisco de la Caleta, which by the way is the same area that Noriega, the notorious dictator of Panama was to build his home many years later and which is still there. That area is now full of many more beautiful expensive homes.
He built two houses right on the beach, one for he and my grandmother, and one for my parents who were expecting me at any time.
So my first years were spent with my bedroom looking right down onto the beach. As I grew, I took up exploring the tide pools when the tide was out. In Panama there is a 20+ foot tide, and when the tide goes out, you are able to walk almost a mile out into what was the sea. In some cases the tide pools were so large that they even contained large fish such as sharks who were stuck there when the tide went out. What a place to be a lad.
My father, Lee Roy Holt, began his career on the Canal upon his discharge from the U.S. Navy first driving launches and small harbor tugs , graduating through the larger sea-going tugs and finally to a position as a Pilot on the Panama Canal. He received his unlimited Master's License in the Maritime Academy in San Pedro, California in 1944. Unfortunately he passed away in 1951 at the age of 46 in Balboa, Canal Zone. Captain Holt was a descendant of an original family (Randall Holt) that settled the English colonies in the "new world", coming to the Americas in 1620 from Cheshire, England and settling into Jamestown in Virginia. That family established itself in Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Florida.
My father and step-grandfather both died in Panama and are both buried in the American Monuments Cemetery in Corozal, Panama within sight of the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side.
My mother's family settled Panama in 1523 coming from Galicia in Northwestern Spain. The first Provincial Governor of Panama under the Spanish King and Queen, Pedro Arias, was a direct ancestor.
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| Born January 1935, Panama City, Panama. My mom had been in San Diego and was on her way home when I was due. I missed by one day being born on a ship, the MS Abraham Lincoln. My name might have been Lincoln Holt instead of Richard. |
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| Graduation from Kindergarten, Balboa, Canal Zone June 1940. I didn't know how to speak much English at this age and did not start until first grade when I had to mix with lots of new kids. I was 5 years old when this photo was taken. |
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| Main cathedral in Casco Viejo, the old part of Panama City. I was baptized here into the Catholic church as an infant., In keeping with the family's tradition, my Godfather was a prominent leader in Panama, Carlos de Seda, a very fine man whom I was to get to know later in life. |
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| My birthplace, Santo Tomas Hospital on the Panama Bay waterfront in Panama City, Panama. |
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| Growing up in the Panama Canal Zone |
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The Panama Canal
The Gatun Locks shown in the next photos were the first set of locks started on the Panama Canal. The first concrete was poured in 1908.
When I was in first grade, my father was transferred to Gatun at the beginnng of WW II to operate large sea-going tugs that operated on the Canal and out into the Atlantic Ocean. Their base of operation was situated overlooking the Gatun Locks, so it was a beautiful place to watch ship traffic as it moved through the Canal. This was right at the beginning of WWII in 1940. My dad was forced to live in quarters belonging to the Panama Canal, so we moved from San Francisco Beach to Gatun into a very nice two story home overlooking the Gatun Locks. I started attending Gatun Elementary School, first grade, and boy, did I run into a lot of trouble.
I knew almost no English. I could understand English, but I didn't know how to speak many words. I became the target for the sixth grade American kids who called me all kinds of names, and routinely beat me up during playground sessions. I would come home all bruised and beaten, blood all over my face. I lost a lot of teeth during those days also. Complaints to the school administration by my dad did no good. The teachers also looked the other way.
So my dad gave me, one day, a short piece of pipe which I hid in the bushes next to the playground. When recess came and the beatings started, I ran for my pipe, retrieved it and proceeded to do a lot of damage to the older boys in the yard. I sent several home or to the hospital with broken parts of their bodies. My dad and I appeared before the Panama Canal management, with directions to him that if he couldn't control his kid, he was going to lose his job. The fighting stopped. I wasn't picked on again, in fact, I was henceforth called the "tough Panamanian kid". I was never beaten up again! But I learned a big lesson in life during that year.
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| This is a view as of mid-2010 of the digging and clearing taking place in Gatun for the expansion of the Panama Canal. This expansion will accomodate the largest ships afloat in modern times. The houses in the photo are in the original town of Gatun. The closest digging connects with the pre-WWII digging that was halted by that war. You can see the current Canal in the far left of the photo where an auto carrier is set to enter the Gatun Locks which are hidden from view in this photo. My family lived in a very nice home on the left side of this photo. In the background is the Atlantic/Caribbean Sea. At the start of WWII, German U-boats surfaced just outside the breakwater and lobbed shells from their 5" guns at targets ashore, Gatun being one of them. Because of this danger, my Dad was told to move his family to Gamboa. He was considered a "critical employee". We loved Gatun and hated to move. |
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| Latest digs in Gatun late 2010. You can see the current Canal off to the far left in the photo where a container carrier is set to enter the Gatun Locks. |
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| The housing area in Gatun which sat on top of a hill that is now being taken down for the new expansion of the Gatun Locks. The Clubhouse, Commissary and other government support buildings are located on the left upper part of the photo. Gatun was the first permanent town built on the Isthmus of Panama by the United States. |
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| A further view of the expansion area of the Gatun Locks which will allow much larger ships to transit through the Panama Canal. We used to play in the jungle in this area as little kids. Now it will be part of the passage. |
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This next photo is the view that we used to get from our house on top of the hill in Gatun of the locks in operation. That housing area is now all gone, removed to allow for the building of the new expanded locks to take the larger ships through the Canal.
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| This was the view from our house when we moved to the Gatun Locks area on the Panama Canal. We could sit on our porch and watch the ships going through the Canal. |
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| The new set of locks associated with the major expansion project start to take shape at Miraflores on the Pacific side. The existing set of Miraflores Locks can be seen in the background. These older locks will continue to accomodate the majority of shipping through the Canal, with the new expanded locks to take care of the huge ships now being built to carry oil, grain and containers. |
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| Gatun Dam and Spillway on the Gatun earthen dam that holds all the water necessary to operate the Panama Canal |
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| Gatun Spillway providing hydroelectric power to the Gatun Locks and the entire Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. My maternal grandfather was on the team of German Engineers that built and installed all the electrical systems with this spillway. |
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| The Gatun Spillway holds back all the waters of Gatun Lake and the Chagres River which is the water source for the Panama Canal |
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My early life was really tied up with the Panama Canal. This photo below was taken on the day of my baptism into Christ's family at Frijoles, a railroad town on the Canal that had a camp used by the Four Square Gospel Church of Panama City for their youth and adult camps. Our family had attended that church from the time I was about 2 years old when my grandmother first, then my mother, left the Roman Catholic church in Panama City and became converted to the protestant church, the Four Square Gospel church also located in Panama City. I was actually immersed in the Canal for my baptism. The little cap was used to identify campers attending the conference. And just to show how small this world can be sometimes, the Pastor of that church, Dr. Leland Edwards, and his wife and son live only about an hour's drive from where we live and we have met them on occasion to have lunch on the beach. Dr. Edwards was about 28 years of age at that time, a missionary of the Four Square church out of Los Angeles where their headquarters was and still is located.
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| Taken on the day of my baptism by Pastor Leland Edwards in the Panama Canal at the little railroad town of Frijoles. I think I was all of about 8 years of age when this photo was taken. I had already accepted Christ as my personal Savior. |
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Early Schooling
I attended Panama Canal Zone schools through my freshman year in high school. The U.S. government ran the schools and maintained an excellent school program that had very high standards for teaching and for the teachers. Gatun, on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal, was my home for first grade, and then the Panama Canal moved my dad from Gatun to Gamboa where I attended grades 2-5. Gatun was located only about 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean where German U-Boats made a habit of surfacing just outside the breakwater for the entrance to the Canal, and lobbed shells from their deck gun into the living quarters in Colon, Cristobal and Gatun. My dad had what was called a "critical position" on the Canal and the people running the Canal didn't want to lose any of these people to the German gunfire, so we were moved to Gamboa which is about 20 miles inland along the route of the Canal.
My dad ultimately was moved to Balboa, on the Pacific side at the entrance to the Canal, and finally I finished grade school in Balboa. I then attended Balboa Jr. High for two years, then spent one year at Balboa High. All through school I had been very active in sports, playing baseball, football, tennis and other sports year around in the wonderful tropical climate of Panama. I was also active in the school bands, playing piano and clarinet for some years before going into high school, and playing in the Balboa High marching band for a number of years through middle school and grade school as well as in my freshman year.
But I had a difficult time paying attention to rules of good conduct, and got into a lot of trouble during these early years. These were the end of the war years (1943-1947) and there were a lot of things to lead a young agressive and restless youth into trouble, and I got into those things unfortunately. My dad decided in 1948 that he should send me to the States for the rest of my high school years. I was very unhappy with this since all my friends were in the Canal Zone and Panama. I was a pretty active kid, inclined to get into trouble, especially with all my family members living in the Republic of Panama where there were a lot of things that could get me into trouble. After the second world war, there were lots of opportunities to get into things that were not legal nor appropriate for me to be involved in. Participating in riots, which during those years was the thing to do, was also included in that list of do-nots. Since I had dual citizenship, sometimes I would take the side of the U.S. behind the barbed wire in the riots, and then when it was convenient, in other situations, I took the side of Panama and joined my cousins in the uprisings throwing rocks at my friends on the other side of the barricades. So my dad had some good reasons for wanting me to get into a different environment.
The Pastor of our church, Balboa Heights Baptist Church, had just recently gotten out of the Army as a Colonel, and he was also a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois, a well known Christian college in the U.S. He and my dad had become good friends, and they colluded to send me to Wheaton Academy, the prep school for Wheaton College.
I was enrolled in the summer of 1949 at Wheaton Academy just outside of Chicago, a school of very high academic standards which was attached to Wheaton College. My family all made the trip from the Canal Zone to Illinois where none of us had ever been, and took me to the campus of Wheaton Academy. When they left, I knew no one. My folks didn't even know what winter clothes to buy for me since they had never lived in a cold climate. I was 14 years of age, on my own 4,000 miles from home with no family anywhere in the northern part of the U.S. I had never seen snow and had never been in a cold climate.
I was not a happy camper at this stage of my life!!
In my first year I broke an ankle while playing football, and had an appendectomy during the year as well. What a mess this year could have been for me. And then at the end of the school year, I had to make my own way from Wheaton Academy, 35 miles from Chicago to New York City to catch a ship back to Panama to return home. Fifteen years old and all alone in New York City. A very lonely time in my life, with no family at Thanksgiving or Christmas, and no one to provide special help when I needed it.
I toughened up and became a "loner". I learned to take care of myself! I grew up pretty fast!!
But then I have to add in here, that Wheaton Academy turned out to be a haven of learning for me, learning more about myself, and God and others. I learned to obey rules. I also learned to lean on God for my strength when I became very depressed. I made friends in the dormatory that year that have lasted all my life. Even to today, I can pick up the phone and call classmates that live all over the U.S. and it is just as though we were back in those days at Wheaton Academy, when we were all away from home, and 14 years of age, lonely for home, and yet learning about living on our own, and learning about depending on God for what we needed. And now, especially since we are all almost 80 years of age, that contact with each other is invaluable!!
I wouldn't trade those years at Wheaton Academy for anything in the world!! The faculty was superb, and became not only our friends, but almost like our folks. The last cruise on which I was the Guest Lecturer on the Noordam with Holland America in 2007, there were about 80 of my former teachers and classmates that made the trip to listen to my lectures and reacquaint ourselves with friends of the past. What a great time that was. The food served family style at tables of 8 was great at the Academy. The living conditions were excellent. The sports programs were superb, and the teaching about all of life and how to get along in life and all about our God were the best I could have ever gotten anywhere in the world. What a gift God gave me in 1949 that lasts until today! And I have asked God to forgive me many times for all the anger I had, at my folks, at the Pastor of our church in Balboa, Canal Zone, and at anyone connected with my having to leave my home in Panama.
I was home on summer vacation between my junior and senior years at the Academy when my dad died of a heart attack. I was carrying him in my arms to the doctor's car in front of our house in Balboa, Canal Zone when he died. I was 16 years old at the time. What a blow this was to all of us, and it made my future very unsettled for a short time, but some businessmen in the States offered to pay all my expenses for my senior year if I would return to Wheaton. My mother had no money and could not support me in any way. So I returned to Wheaton Academy, a little late for the start of school, but finished my senior year at WA.
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| Gamboa Elementary School where I was a student for four years. What a wonderful place to go to school. We were only a stone's throw away from the Panama Canal, in fact this photo my wife Cheryl took from a ship we were on making a transit of the Canal. Whenever a unique ship would go through the Canal, the teachers would let us out of school to go sit on the bank of the Canal and watch. During WWII we got to see all the war ships, cargo ships and troop ships that made their way through the Canal on their way to or from the war. The church in the foreground of the photo was not there when I attended. It was all open ground, playgrounds for we children. What great memories this place has for me. |
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| Balboa Elementary School where I got my 6th grade education. This building had the classrooms surrounding a large atrium with trees and plants, a very beautiful place to go to school. Balconies went all around the atrium where the classrooms were located. We lived just two blocks from the school. |
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| Balboa High School where the Junior High and the High School were in the same complex |
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| An aerial view of the two sets of locks on the Pacific side (Balboa, etc), Miraflores Locks in the foreground and Pedro Miguel Locks in the background. |
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| Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side of the Canal. In the background is Pedro Miguel Locks. Alongside Miraflores just to the right is the spillway that produces electrical support for the locks, Panama City and over half of the Panama Canal Zone. |
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| Playing football at Wheaton Academy. I did well at this sport and was selected as an "all state" in my senior year. Here I am holding a blocking dummy for freshmen players just staring out in the sport. I lived three years in a dorm with about 60 other guys, and loved it. I have made friends that have lasted at lifetime. What a wonderful chance this was for me even though I started out not wanting to be there. |
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| I played every sport at Wheaton Academy and enjoyed them all. Here I am taking a shot during a varsity basketball game. |
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| Graduation photo from Wheaton Academy. I got a great Christian education and my dad was right on target sending me to this place of learning. I needed a lot of the discipline that I got at the Academy. It took me almost a full year to turn my life around. I was 17 years old at graduation. |
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| My roommate, Jim Dolby, takes a shot as I (#13) block for him. In our senior year this little school was able to win the Private School championships for the entire Chicago area and we just had seven or eight players to do this with. |
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| College at Wheaton, Wheaton, Illnois |
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I had very good grades at Wheaton Academy, making me eligible for enrolling at Wheaton College, a difficult school to gain entry. I had become close friends with Harv Chrouser, the Head football coach, and he convinced me that Wheaton was the place go. I had just lost my dad to a heart attack, had no money, and Wheaton offered me scholarship financial assistance which would get me through school. I took it and enrolled at Wheaton, a wonderful place to get an education, and also a great place to play football. Wheaton was also starting an Army ROTC program and I was interested in this as well as the scholastic capabilities of the school. My goal at this point in my life was to go into medicine. Little did I know that this would change very soon after starting my college career.
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A Change in my Goals at Wheaton College
Even before my freshman year at Wheaton, I had set a goal to become a medical doctor and possibly go into the mission field as a Medical Missionary. My first year at Wheaton changed all of this. First, I enrolled in the ROTC program as a freshman and loved it. Secondly, my interface with those that were in charge of what was loosely called a pre-med program was not the best. The professor heading up this effort did not like the military and did not like football, both of which I was going to be a solid participant. He restricted me from wearing my ROTC uniform blouse in class. He berated Wheaton's football program right to my face and in class. I became so incensed that I decided to leave Wheaton and was already talking to another school to transfer at the end of my first semester. The President of Wheaton got wind of this, and after a long talk with him, I calmed down. The head of the Physics Department also became aware of my unrest, and he gave me a pitch on majoring in Physics. He emphasized that the great need in the world of science was for those that had a broad view of science which Physics would certainly give me. I changed my major right there and stayed at Wheaton!!
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| Football was the key to my college education. I had no money when I finished high school at Wheaton Academy, and my dad had just passed away. My mom could not support me at all. So when a scholarsip was offered to play at Wheaton, I thought long and hard about this. I was also very fortunate to have received many other offers for scholarships at large schools all over the country, and even went for interviews to some of them. But Wheaton drew my attention - it had very high Christian standards, better scholastics than most schools, and I fully trusted Harv Chrouser, the Head Football Coach to lead me in the right direction. I was only 17 years of age when I graduated from high school, totally on my own with no family, so I needed a lot of this. This photo was taken in my senior year when I was co-captain of the team. I weighed in at about 235 pounds at this time and was 6'2" in height and was 20 years of age. |
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| Wheaton campus ablaze in the Fall colors |
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| Blanchard Hall at Wheaton College, the main academic building on campus. Wheaton College is located in the city of Wheaton, Illionois. This is a beauiful small campus with lovely grounds. I chose to go to Wheaton because of three things, first it was a Christian college and it had a wonderful reputation, second it had top scholastics of schools throughout the U.S., and third I wanted to play football for Coach Harv Chrouser. |
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| Four tough years majoring in Physics, playing football and a heavy involvement in the ROTC program, and I achieved what I wanted, a diploma from Wheaton that opened the door to many opportunities in the world of technology. |
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The following thumbnails are photos of the Wheaton College campus in the Fall. Click on any of them to get a little larger view. Included in the photos are the Chapel, the Billy Graham Center, Willston Hall girl's dorm and views of Blanchard Hall, the main building on campus. As some of you know, evangelist Billy Graham was a Wheaton graduate in the class of 1943. These photos are the courtesy of Corey Noonan, the Wheaton Western Regional rep who was kind enough to find them and send them to me.
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