My Father's Legacy; A Tribute

                                                                         

                       My father, Dr. Philip Holwick, in Valley Forge, PA in 1990.

    So here is a screen shot of a scanned document of the Peoria, Illinois Astronomical Society. In this article, my father's name is mentioned (Dr. Philip Holwick) as a member of the society who "donate[d] his 12-inch Cave reflecting telescope to the Society on the condition that a suitable 'dark-site' could be found for it." The Society found an "abandoned farmyard complete with several out buildings and a large concrete feedlot." Use was granted to PAS members from the Forest Park Foundation to develop an observatory. The "Jubilee" observatory "was built on the grounds of Jubilee State Park in an effort to escape the Peoria city lights." The observatory has 2 domes, one of which houses a 24-inch Newtonian Reflector. You can read the rest of the article here by clicking on the link.

    I remember this gigantic telescope. I remember a picture of it with my brother Tim when he was a baby standing next to it. It was as big as a car. My father had other large telescopes as well and I also remember him taking us kids to the planetarium. My oldest brother Tim developed his love for astronomy from our dad and he had a telescope when we were all in high school. I remember looking at Saturn and seeing the rings. It truly was amazing and beautiful. 

    It was obvious my father loved astronomy. He loved photography too. When I was a child, I remember he had a dark-room where he would develop his film, and he had a slide projector where he would frequently gather up us kids to dish up his delightful slide presentation of a myriad of photos he took. He was also a doctor, a Dermatologist to be exact, although he practiced basic internal medicine. I remember all to well the times he would line up us children and give us a subcutaneous injection in our fannies when we got into poison oak or poison ivy, and I remember vividly the many times he would give me a Phenergan suppository when I was vomiting and sick, and the times he would throw a blanket over me when I was coughing in my bed at night. I also remember the time when I was in 3rd grade and it was show-and-tell week. I asked my dad to bring in his slide projector and present pictures of skin diseases to the classroom. He gladly accepted and was pleased to do so despite the unpleasant and grossed out responses from my classmates. Of course, I was intrigued by the photos. I thought they were cool and frankly, I am no different today at 50, still intrigued by things I don't know, always on a endless quest of knowledge and learning. I gravitated towards my father because I always found him very interesting. He was never dull or boring, and he was remarkably and refreshingly original. He was always himself, no pretense, which is what I loved most about him. 

                            

   

    Here is another screen shot of my father's license to perform medicine and surgery in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He received this license of the 27th day of June, 1968.

                                 

    Here is a picture of his diploma from the University of Kansas where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts on the 1st of June, 1959. He then went on to get his Doctor of Medicine, also at the University of Kansas, School of Medicine on the 1st of June, 1964.

                                            

    After graduating from the School of Medicine from the University of Kansas, he joined the United States Air Force and did his Medical Internship at Carswell Air force base hospital in Fort Worth, Texas in 1965. He had earned the title, Captain, to which he served for a total of 2 years in the Air Force, 

    including the Strategic Air Command from the 13th of August, 1966 to the 6th of July, 1967.

    After duty in the Strategic Air Command, he went on to do his residency in Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia from the 1st of July, 1968 to the 30th of June, 1970 where he met my mother who was a R.N., and later, married.

                                                                              

    I learned a lot from my father and I do miss him a great deal. He passed away on July 26, 2013. To this day, I still have all his diplomas, achievements, and certificates hanging up the wall in my office. I just completed my Bachelor of Arts/English this spring. It took me 5 years to finish but I did it and now I am considering an accelerated B.S. in nursing. I have been working in healthcare for over 20 years now, but I also love to read and have a passion to write. I do have plans to get some writing work published, but unfortunately, there is only so much time in one day to do all the things floating in my mind. I know one day I will publish a book about the many anecdotes I have from working in healthcare. That's for dang sure!