Francis Ross Holland, Jr.

2001 Distinguished Service Award

Presented with Great Respect & Admiration for Contributions to the History and Preservation of America 's Lighthouses

F. Ross Holland, Jr. has been called the “dean” of American lighthouse historians. His fascination with lighthouses began early when at the age of five, his family visited the Tybee Island Lighthouse while on vacation. Ross began a thirty-year career with the National Park Service beginning as a park historian in California . He worked at numerous National Parks, many including lighthouses, as well as Civil War battlefields and the C&O Canal. Ross became a research historian, supervisory research historian, associate regional director for planning for the National Park Service's New England office, and finally associate director of the Service's cultural resources management program in Washington , D.C. For this work he received the Interior Department's Meritorious Service Award for his contributions to historic preservation and its Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the Park Service's cultural resources management program. Among the lighthouse work accomplished by Ross during this time was the restoration of Old Point Loma Lighthouse, a history of Bodie Island Light Station, the historic structure report for the keeper's dwelling at Cape Hatteras Light Station, and a history of Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

Upon retiring from the National Park Service in 1983, Ross became director of restoration and preservation for the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. Fittingly, this allowed Ross to stay involved with lighthouses as the Statue of Liberty was a functioning lighthouse operated by the Lighthouse Board from 1886 to 1902 (originally called Liberty Enlightening the World ). It was during this period that he became familiar with the historic lighthouse depot located at Staten Island , New York . As early as 1972 Ross had called for the “systematic collecting and preserving of specimens and examples of aids to navigation and related equipment, for, unquestionably, the evolution and technological development of lighthouses and lightships played a significant role in the nation's maritime history.” In the mid-1990s he was among a group of visionaries who developed the idea of a national lighthouse museum to accomplish the very goal he expressed over twenty years earlier. Ironically, after a national search, the national lighthouse depot at Staten Island , overlooking the Statue of Liberty, was chosen as the most appropriate site for this museum. To this effort Ross donated his entire lighthouse library and archives including copies of all his numerous publications, manuscripts, correspondence and collections.

During Ross' career he authored no less than eight lighthouse books and numerous articles, reports, and book reviews. His first book, America's Lighthouses: An Illustrated History , first published in 1972 and republished numerous times, has been called “the first full-scale study of the United States Lighthouse Service.” His Great American Lighthouses , part of the National Historic Trust's Guide Series, published in 1994, is the first national guide to lighthouses in the United States . Lighthouses , published in 1995, is a beautiful coffee-table type book. His most recent book, Maryland Lighthouses of the Chesapeake Bay , published in 1997, is considered by many to be his best due to the in-depth research and new information he presents. Ross was a member of the team which dealt with the various options for saving the Cape Hatteras Light Station from ocean encroachment. The team's recommendation to move the light station back from the beach to its original distant relationship to the beach was selected and the controversial move eventually was successfully completed.

Ross once said, “an old friend of mine says there is no such thing as a bad beer; some beers are just better than others. That statement pretty well expresses my feelings about lighthouses. There is not a bad lighthouse because they come in such a variety of shapes and forms, and their settings – normally spectacular – increase their differences, their beauty and their charm.” Those who have had the pleasure of knowing, and in particular working with, Ross have felt his genuine affection and appreciation for lighthouses.