Part II – Henry Hobart Holly III (1908-1996)
Hobie, as I call him or Hobe, as his widow calls him, was born January 10, 1908 in New York City. Besides his role as one of the Founders he was the Consultant for TFA and a member even though he did not have a Thayer ancestry. His widow, Virginia Nash Holly, is a TFA Life Member.
Hobie’s interest in the Thayer genealogy developed because of his close and long personal friendship with Waldo Chamberlain Sprague of Wollaston, MA. Mr. Sprague was the Historian and Genealogist for the Quincy Historical Society until his death in November 1960.
Incidentally, the New England Historical and Genealogical Society of Boston own Mr. Sprague’s 1600-page handwritten and still unpublished Thayer genealogy. This work was considered by TFA as the one to sponsor in publication, however NEHGS insisted it be published verbatim. Our Founders rejected that possibility and turned their attention to the massive work by Patricia Thayer Muno, our on-staff Historian/Genealogist.
Hobie became the resident Historian/ Genealogist for the Braintree and Quincy Historical Societies. He had several books published including the editing of “A History of Old Braintree”. While at QHS he traced his Holly family ancestry back to the Mayflower.
Hobie’s parents were Henry Hobart Holly II and Charlotte Morgan. His grandparents were William C. Morgan and Margaret A. Carnley. Her father, Robert Carnley, was a well- known builder of packet ships in New York. It is from him that Hobie became familiar with ships.
Mr. Holly graduated from Yale University receiving his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering in 1920. in 1924 he earned his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in New York.
He first worked as a Chemical Engineer for the Federal Shipbuilding Co. in Hackensack, NJ, then with Metcalf & Eddy in Boston and later for Bethlehem Steel at Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, MA. The two modern day packet ships that he was associated with at Fore River, the Independence and the Constitution were both built for the American Export Co. Lines.
References by Virginia N. Holly