In the late 1950s a very young Laura Souder spent Saturdays with her father, Paul, at the Guam Museum at its Garden House location in the Plaza de España. In addition to dusting the artifacts, her interaction with museum attendant Thelma Glenn and hearing stories of Guam history from her father helped shape her career.
Lt. Governor of Guam 1987-1995. Frank Flores Blas, Sr. (1941-2016) was a Chamorro politician, businessman and member of the Republican Party of Guam. Blas served as the Lieutenant Governor of Guam from 1987 until 1995 for two consecutive terms under Governor Joseph F. Ada.
Lt. Governor Frank F. Blas Read Post »
Ernest Max Adolph. My father’s name was Ernest Max Adolf, perhaps he had already changed his last name to Adolph. He was born in 1891 and died in 1988, still being of sound mind at the age of 97.
SMS Cormoran II: Two Crew Member Profiles Read Post »
When the SMS Cormoran II arrived in Guam in December 1914, among the hundreds of crew members were individuals who worked on the vessel but were not German. Twenty-nine men originally from German New Guinea in the South Pacific and four Chinese men from Tsingtao stayed on Guam along with their German counterparts for the duration of the Cormoran’s internment at Apra Harbor.
SMS Cormoran II: Non-German Crew Members Read Post »
Adalbert Zuckschwerdt (1874 – 1945) was the captain of the German raider SMS Cormoran and its successor SMS Cormoran II which sailed to Guam from Tsingtao (Qingdao), China in 1914 in the early months of World War I. For more than two years, Zuckschwerdt and his crew remained in Guam until the United States entered the conflict in April 1917, and the SMS Cormoran II was scuttled by the Germans in Apra Harbor.
Captain Adalbert Zuckschwerdt Read Post »
US Naval Captain William John Maxwell (1859 – 1934) was Governor of Guam from 28 March 1914 – 29 April 1916. Maxwell relieved Acting Governor Alfred Walton Hinds and continued previous Naval Government infrastructure projects. In addition, he reorganized government agencies, established financial institutions, petitioned the US Navy Department for Guam’s US citizenship and to open the port for commercial use.
Governor William John Maxwell Read Post »
First CHamoru Woman US Naval Officer. Genevieve Perez Ploke Snow (1941 -2011) was born in Hågat, Guam on 15 March 1941. As an infant and toddler during World War II, she survived the Japanese occupation of Guam, raiding of her house, capture of her father (CPO John F. Ploke, Zentsuji POW), starvation, emaciation, dysentery, witnessed the torture and execution of some of her family and friends during the forced march to Manenggon, and the near execution of her grandfather, Antanacio Taitano Perez, as a suspected American spy.
Genevieve Perez Ploke Snow Read Post »
First Chamorro Woman to Preside over Association of Pacific Island Legislatures. Herminia Duenas Dierking (1939 – 2008) was a senator in the Guam Legislature, a professor at the University of Guam, and a cabinet officer in the Government of Guam. As a senator she became the first woman to serve as president of the regional organization, Association of Pacific Island Legislatures.
Herminia Duenas Dierking Read Post »
First Woman to Establish a Music and Arts School on Guam. Carmen “Meling” Romualdez Dela Cruz (1910-1995), a life long musician, is the first woman to open a school for the arts on Guam. She is the daughter of Beatriz Buz and former Philippine Supreme Court Justice Norberto Romualdez.
Carmen Romualdez Dela Cruz Read Post »
Businessman, rancher, patriarch. Don Pascual Artero y Saez (1875 – 1956) was a prominent Spanish businessman, rancher and patriarch of the Artero family in Guam. Born in Mojácar, he served with the Spanish military in the Western Pacific, married on Yap and settled in Guam at the turn of the 20th century.
Pascual Artero y Saez Read Post »
