Dear Mr. Panholzer,

Please permit to introduce myself.

My father, Bernard Panholzer, telephoned me last night to inform me that you had called him a couple of nights ago and introduced yourself as a relative. (the latter I did not. PP) He gave me your address because he knows that I have always been interested in knowing if we have any relatives in Europe who are still alive. He said that you told him that we have many in Germany and Austria. Now that I know this, I'm afraid I don't know what to say or how to begin except to say that your call to him has probably given him ten more years to his life and for me, a void that seems to have been filled. (sadly, his father Bernard died a few months later. PP)

I am forty-nine years old, divorced, and an associate professor in a small college on Pohnpei, one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia, a young central Pacific nation. I have been here three and a half years. Prior to that I had been a journalist in the Marshall Islands and Guam. I have been in the Pacific since 1982.

As you might already know, Germany played a major role in this part of the world in the early 1900s and many of the people here have German surnames. Consequently, this is one of the few places in the world were Panholzer is pronounced correctly most of the time (this was written independently and before having knowledge of my diatribe on the mis-pronounciation of "Panholzer" in North America. PP) Though when they spell it, they put the "h" directly after the "a" because they only use an "h" to designate that the vowel is pronounced long.

As of this moment I teach English composition classes, but I am expecting to begin teaching in my career field of political science and Asian history soon. The language of instruction is English in all classes, but I have learned some Pohnpeian. To be true to my surname, I studied German in college, for I have always wanted to visit Germany and Austria (however, I have forgotten most of it over the years). It seems that though I've always wanted to go to Europe, forces have either lured me or just plain pulled me in the other direction.

I have a son, Charles Panholzer, 27, and a daughter, Rochelle Panholzer-Ducan, 24, from a Filipina wife. Rochelle kept the Panholzer tag when she married because we were afraid the Panholzer surname might die out. (what about relying a bit on Charles, too, for that purpose? PP)

My son has been raising, showing and breeding rottweilers for several years now and he has been contemplating a trip to Germany to show his dogs and perhaps buy one. I know the news that we have relatives in Europe will delight him greatly.

For many years, in fact as long as I can remember, I have tried to get information about both sides of my family. Unfortunately, my mother's aunt took most of her information (perhaps secrets is a better word) to the grave with her. My father only knew his father, mother, and siblings, and he has told us very little about them because apparently they were very poor, and he was farmed out to his siblings for care until WWII, when he enlisted in the US Navy and fought in the Pacific. He didn't return to Washington, D.C., his home, after the war but instead settled in St. Louis, Missouri. We saw the East Coast relatives only at funerals. I always felt pretty much alone because we didn't seem to have relatives. This isolation seems deeper here in the Pacific because family is so very important in everyday life and even death. So to hear that I have relatives in Europe is very important.

My address is as above, but it might be better if you addressed any correspondence as

I can be faxed at the College of Micronesia-FSM at

Do you have a fax number or e-mail? I might be able to send e-mail, but I don't know if the college has this facility. Telephone calls here are $3.00 per minute and mail takes up to 10 days to go to the States, so a fax would be much faster. (turns out, that from Europe, Pohnpei can only be called with operator assistance, if at all, and sending faxes, particularly from a computer, is virtually impossible. PP)

I hope to hear from you

Sincerely yours,

[Tom Panholzer]