Inducted in 2007
Prep Teacher & School Historian (1950-1991)
Member, Prep Board of Trustees (1979-1985)
Father of Four Prep Graduates

Induction Video

Francis Holbrook was born in 1927 in Yonkers, New York to Emmet Holbrook and Lillian Wolfrath Holbrook, though the family moved soon after to 175th Street in Upper Manhattan. He attended Incarnation Grammar School, as did another Prep Hall of Honor member, Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Vincent Scully.

Following in the footsteps of his brother, Martin, Class of 1941, Frank would attend the Prep and graduate in 1945.

During his Hughes Hall years, Frank boxed and was part of the business staff of the Dramatics Society. He also served on the Athletic Council as well as the Council of Discipline, was involved with the yearbook staff, and was a member of the Gaelic Society.

After graduation, Holbrook stayed at Rose Hill, receiving a bachelor's degree in history from Fordham College in 1949. Straightaway, he began applying for teaching positions in the area. Fortunately for Holbrook — and for generations of Prep students — a history teacher was leaving mid-year, and Frank was hired as his replacement in January 1950.
 
Holbrook had been in the Air Force ROTC while at Fordham College, but because of a surplus of officers when he graduated, he was not called to active duty until June 1952, giving him time to complete his master's degree during his early teaching days. Putting his Prep career on hold, Frank first spent ten weeks at the Air Force Intelligence School in Colorado and was then assigned to be adjutant of the air police at the now-decommissioned Mitchel Air Force Base on Long Island. Incidentally, Mitchel Field was named after yet another of Holbrook's fellow Hall of Honor members, the Honorable John Purroy Mitchel, 95th mayor of New York City, and a member of the Prep Class of 1894.
 
In January 1953, Frank volunteered for overseas duty and served as an intelligence officer in the Philippines until October 1953. Returning to the States, Holbrook resumed his teaching duties at the Prep and began coursework at the university towards his doctorate. Frank received his doctoral degree from Fordham in 1969. His dissertation was National Defense and Trans-Pacific Airlines.
 
While researching articles for his dissertation at the National Archives, Frank became interested in Amelia Earhart and the numerous theories about her disappearance in the Pacific. He began writing journal articles about her last flight and eventually became  known internationally as an authority on her disappearance. In fact, many books on Earhart’s life and final flight credit Holbrook’s extensive notes as source material.
 
Holbrook's research at the National Archives also benefited the Prep. While there, he became aware of the value of microfilm in academic research. With an initial grant from the Mothers’ Club, Frank began the Prep’s microfilm collection, which for the time, was unique on the high school level. Long before the internet age, Prep students had access to first hand sources. The collection moved with the Prep from Hughes Hall into the “New Prep Library” in 1972 and eventually included a complete run of the New York Times from its first issue in 1851, other historical newspapers, diplomatic archives and naval records. Frank’s course in naval history, based on the naval microfilm records, became one of the most popular courses in the curriculum.   

Holbrook’s contributions to the Prep over the years are almost too numerous to mention. He was chairman of the Social Studies Department from 1961 to 1979 and again from 1986 to 1991. He was a member of the original Faculty Senate, a member of the Board of Trustees, and he ran the senior prom for fourteen years. In 1991, together with longtime friend, colleague and fellow Hall of Honor member, August “Gus” Stellwag, Class of 1949, he co-authored the first edition of the official history of the Prep, When September Comes. His knowledge of Fordham's history was encyclopedic. Long after his retirement, the school historian emeritus was still being consulted to fill in the details on one aspect of Rose Hill's past or another.   
 
In the words of one Prep alumnus: “I remember Mr. Holbrook as one of the greatest teachers I ever had. I am presently teaching on the university level and try to use him as an example.”  And in the recollections of yet another former student, what left its impression most of all was “the comically animated way in which Mr. Holbrook described historic events from the perspective of the average person present at the time. When he talked about the British Army chasing the Continental Army up to Lake Champlain, he described vividly, with funny noises and facial expressions, just how difficult it was for them to lug their heavy equipment through the forests and mud. After lots of laughter, we understood why they were so exhausted when they had to face the Continentals.”
 
As summed up by another alumnus, grateful for having had the chance to take one of Frank’s classes: “Mr. Holbrook: Tough, influential, brilliant. A good guy. A true man of his word.”
 
A Fordham man through and through, Frank was not only known and respected at the Prep, but in University circles, as well. A longtime active member of the Fordham College Alumni Association, Holbrook also served a stint as contributing editor of Traditio, the Association’s newsletter, often peppering the publication with Fordham lore from days gone by as only he could.

In all Frank’s many years at Rose Hill, one Fordham event surely can be held up as the most serendipitous: while working towards his master's in 1951, he met Barbara Boehning in one of his classes. Frank and Barbara were married in 1954 and raised six children: two daughters, Elizabeth and Jacqueline, and four sons. Their four sons all graduated from the Prep: William `75, Francis `77, Matthew `80 and Luke `86.
 
"Doc Holbrook" retired from the Prep in 1991.

Francis Xavier Holbrook — husband, father, teacher, friend, colleague, scholar, historian, and true son of Fordham — passed away on December 10, 2014.