Phil Holcomb
Under my mugshot, in the HHS Yearbook , it said “Have Tuba- Will Travel”… I don’t know who came up with that prophecy, but I should have paid more attention..
After 2 years at SUNY Maritime College, I changed direction and joined the USAF- ending up stationed in Japan and Korea as a communications technician. I was subsequently accepted to Officer Candidate School andgraduated 2nd Lt in 1963. I gained a Bachelor’s Degree from U. Nebraska in English Literature and speech (you figure!) in 1967. I was eventually stationed in Honolulu where I earned a MS in Systems Management fromUSC.
My knees had been giving me trouble and as a result, in 1968, I retired medically as a Captain. I landed a civilian job with the consultantsexpanding Honolulu International Airport - and after a couple of years moved over into Airport Operations with the State of Hawaii - ending up as Assistant Manager, HNL. I was happily racing my yacht and living the good life when I lucked into a 9 month leave of absence to work with Bechtel Corp- studying major airports all around the world. After seeing Europe, Middle East and Asia, and temporarily living in San Francisco, I found myself somewhat less enamored with Hawaii when I returned. A few months later I was suddenly offered a job in SaudiArabia at several times my state salary, so I bid Aloha to my boat,condo and the good life and started working in the big kitty litter box-not an easy transition…
In 1980 I had enough of Saudi and accepted a position
with the UN (International Civil Aviation Organization) and was posted to
Sri Lanka where I was assigned as General Manager of their new Airport Authority
-a challenging but deeply satisfying job for three years. I then was transferred
to the Sultanate of Oman where I served as Aviation Adviser
for six years- (living in a villa on the beach). I started buying Oriental
Carpets in Oman, and soon became an avid collector.
Remember the Tuba?? Well while
on leave in Copenhagen, I bought an old tuba for fun - and soon joined
a group of musicians calling
ourselves the “Muscat Brass”. In 1989 I was offered the post of
Deputy Director, Asia and Pacific in Bangkok. So I moved my tuba and gear
to Thailand and founded the Bangkok Brass Ensemble soon thereafter. I also
bought a hot racing trimaran which I raced in the annual King’s Cup
in Phuket. My job had me traveling throughout Asia, from to Bhutan and Nepal
in the Himalayas out to Vanuatu and Solomons in the Pacific. My collection
of oriental carpets grew out of control and I became President of the Bangkok
Carpet Collectors Club. . At the same time I started collecting
old and unusual brass instruments.
My life was certainly exciting and interesting - but somehow incomplete - until I met a lovely Thai Lady named Phanpen. We courted for a couple of years and then married. We were then doubly blessed with twingirls, Samantha and Jennifer in 1996 ( I was always a bit behind the curve). I retired from the UN in 1999 and we moved back to a my house in St Pete Beach Florida which I had bought some years before. We had to immediately expand the house to fit the kids, my extensive carpet collection and some 40 tubas and other brass instruments in a minimuseum …I since established a website at www.rugs-n-relics.com wheremuch of our treasures are displayed in cyber galleries and I am now considered a semi-dealer in such items. St Pete Beach is a great place to live - we have a house directly on the water with our 35’ Catamaranat the end of our dock. We enjoy the little pleasures of watching sunsets and the dolphins and manatees swimming by . Our greatest pleasure of course is watching our lovely girls grow into little ladies. They start 1st grade this year and we have 12 years of taxi service to look forward to! We are the luckiest taxi drivers alive!
