Henry E. Holt

Henry E. Holt, 89 years old, died May 5, 2019 in Tempe. Born in Richwood, WV, he joined the Navy during the Korean War and met his wife Mary E. O'Brien, a Navy nurse at St. Albans Naval Hospital in New York. They married in March, 1954 and moved to CO where Henry obtained his PhD in Geology from the University of Colorado Boulder. In 1961, Henry began his career with the Military Geology branch of the US Government in Washington, DC. They moved to Flagstaff AZ in 1964. Henry worked for the USGS and NASA as a Planetary Geologist while Mary raised their 4 children.

After his retirement in 1986, Henry and Mary lived in Flagstaff and Chantilly, VA. They enjoyed traveling throughout the USA and Europe. Henry was active in retirement, discovering nearly 700 minor planets and asteroids as an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff and the Palomar Observatory in CA. In 1989, he co-discovered 4581 Asclepius, a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary E. Holt, 91 years, who passed away May 20, 2017 at her home in Chantilly, VA and by his sister, Lilas Kee, who died in 2009.

The Holts' are survived by their children: Elizabeth, Hank, Kathy Holt Moeller (Michael), Nancy Martinez (Steve), 7 grandsons, Mary's siblings: Margaret O'Brien Lombardo & Brendan O'Brien, 8 nieces and 2 nephews. A private family memorial will be held in October at the national cemetery in Quantico.