Kenneth Eugene Holly

Gene Holly was born in Hepler, Kansas, a small town in the southeast corner of the state, on November 7, 1925. His parents were Paul and Bernice (White) Holly. His father was a railroad station agent. The family later moved to Missouri when Gene was five. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he was a student in High School at Columbia, Missouri. On the night of his graduation in May of 1943, he caught a bus at 11:00 P.M. for Kansas City to join the Navy. The following day he was accepted for the V-5 program (Navy Air Corps) and was sent home to await active duty. In November, he was called and put in the V-12A program (college training) and sent to college in Tennessee. After three semesters there, he was assigned to the Georgia Institute of Technology on the V-12 program where he learned to fly while obtaining an Aeronautical Engineering degree and a commission as an Ensign in the Navy. In 1946, he was released from active duty but continued in the Navy Reserve for another 10 years.
His first job was with North American Aviation in Inglewood, California, working as a design engineer on the XF-86 Fighter. Next was a six-month tour at Wright Patterson Air Force Base for testing of the North American XB-45 Bomber. While at North American, he met Margery McCoy. They dated for six months then were married on May 1, 1948.
In 1952, Gene joined three other engineers who were forming an aeronautical engineering company. After working on several sub-contract-engineering jobs they received a contract with the U.S. Air Force to develop the preliminary design for a pressurized glider that could reach an altitude of 60,000 feet. The glider was later featured in the November 1955 issue of Popular Science magazine. In 1953, they entered the aerial target business. They developed one capable of trailing 30,000 feet behind a tow airplane. That target system was sold to the United States Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and NATO countries.
In 1959, he joined Space Technology Laboratories (STL), which was a wholly owned subsidiary of TRW. STL was formed to provide technical direction for all Air Force inter-continental ballistic missile programs and as such was required by law to be an independent company. Gene was Project Engineer for the Atlas F weapon system, which was the silo-stored missile. The Atlas was the first inter-continental ballistic missile to be built in the United States. The Atlas F weapon system was a four year, two billion (1960) dollar program. In the mid 1960's, congress allowed STL to become a part of TRW and Gene was placed in charge of a concept study of how to land a vehicle on Mars. In 1967, he transferred to the Minuteman missile program at Norton Air Force Base and was there until he left TRW in 1969.
He then looked around for a business opportunity and considered Honolulu, San Diego, and Palm Springs as desirable places to live. The result was a twelve-year ownership of Palm Springs Camera and Sound. The business was sold in 1982 and Gene retired.
Gene spent the next few years as quality time with his family and traveling. He and his wife, Margie, traveled extensively in the United States and to twenty-two countries, plus U.S. possessions Johnston Island, Wake Island, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.
In November of 1993, he joined a group to pursue the idea of developing an air museum in Palm Springs. When the Palm Springs Air Museum came into being in 1996, Gene became President of the docent organization which is now known as the Victory Squadron.
Besides the Air Museum, Gene was a Trustee of Loma Linda Hospital Lions Eye Foundation, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a member of the Quiet Birdmen. Gene was a past President of the Lions Club, the One Hundred Club, and the Greater Palm Springs Navy League. He was also the Chairperson of the Gordon Bennett Balloon Race in Palm Springs in 1984 and past Vice President of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce.
He leaves behind two children, Madeleine Holly-Rosing, and Matthew Holly, five grandchildren (Jebro, Loni, Nikki, Elizabeth, and Cathy), and eighteen great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Palm Springs Air Museum or the Center of Inquiry.