FHHS in the News

Palm Beach County teacher's place in geography bee: No. 1

High school educator goes far with knowledge

By Rhonda J. Miller
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The champion of the National Geography Bee for adults is a Palm Beach County teacher with nine college degrees and an attitude.

"I'm just an old country hick school teacher," said Jerry Holt, 57, who won the National Geographic Society competition by knowing tidbits such as the capital city at the junction of the Pilcomayo and Paraguay Rivers.

The answer: Asuncion.

Blame his attitudes about teaching and learning on his mother, Odell Holt, a teacher who made sure family life in Panama City carved out major chunks of time for the library.

He's taught almost every subject in 36 years and is now an English and International Baccalaureate instructor and wrestling coach at Forest Hill High School in West Palm Beach.

Although Holt holds vast geographical informationthat led to his title, such as that the gulf that forms the southwestern coast of Spain and the southern border of Portugal is the Gulf of Cadiz, he hasn't been to most places he named to win the Dec. 1 contest in Washington, D.C., hosted by Alex Trebek of Jeopardy!

Holt traveled to several Caribbean countries and briefly crossed the borders into Mexico and Canada.

He travels a lot in the United States, almost always for education.

He spent several summers in Moscow. Not Moscow, Russia. Moscow, Idaho. That's the home of the University of Idaho, where he earned a doctorate. He received his other doctorate in education at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Holt attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire to earn a master's degree in African studies.

"I would love to travel to Africa, but it's prohibitively expensive," Holt said.

The expenses are covered for Holt's prize in the geography bee, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands.

No doubt he knows they are off the coast of Ecuador.

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