Obituary of Richard Thomas Holt
Richard (“Dick”) Thomas Holt B.Met, MSc, PhD
Richard (“Dick”) Thomas Holt, 85, passed away peacefully on October 6th, 2024 following a long battle with cancer. He was born on December 2nd, 1938 in Derby, England, to Richard and Averinah Holt. Dick often spent his childhood summers in Pembrokeshire with his sister Pam and his Welsh relations.
After earning degrees in Metallurgy at the Universities of Sheffield and London, Dick completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia on scholarship. He went on to a fellowship at the University of Manitoba, where he met his first wife Judy, with whom he had two sons Derek and Richard. He later met his second wife Carmelita Boivin-Cole and her children Jennifer and James. The combined families moved into a new home together in Gloucester Ontario in 1983 where Dick impressively displayed his “do it yourself” approach to running a home which he carried with him to his final months.
Dick spent most of his career at the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa where he analyzed the properties of materials on behalf of government, aerospace companies, and the Canadian Space Agency. In 1983, as Secretary of the International Standards Organization, Dick organized a meeting of major aerospace nations in Beijing and afterwards spent two amazing weeks with Carmelita exploring the Great Wall and regions of China by steam train. Once retired from NRC in 2000, Dick took up a volunteer role as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.
In 2002, they moved to Nova Scotia and have spent many years at their dream home overlooking the Annapolis Basin. Dick was a long-standing Committee member at the Annapolis Royal Golf Club where he avidly played with friends. He and Carmelita also enjoyed the arts, performing in a local choir, and attending shows at the local theatre.
Besides visiting the four children who were variously based in London, Vancouver, Sydney and Ottawa, highlights included a round-the-world trip aboard the Queen Mary 2 and visits with friends to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu. In 2017, they hosted an extended family reunion at the White Point Resort on Nova Scotia’s south shore at which many fond memories were made. In 2019, Dick greatly enjoyed travels around New Zealand and Australia with their son James.
Dick is survived by his wife Carmelita and children Derek, Rich, Jennifer and James. The family is holding a funeral service to celebrate Dick’s life at 1pm on October 22nd, 2024 at St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Annapolis Royal, with Rev. Julia Ford officiating. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made in Dick’s memory to the Canadian Cancer Society or St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Annapolis Royal. On line condolences may be sent to www.kaulbachfamilyfuneralhome.com
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