Giovanna Holbrook's Obituary
Giovanna Holbrook (née Giovanna Ravetti) was born on March 28, 1933 in Alessandria, Italy. She was the last but one of ten children. She grew up on a farm but from a young age she was curious about the world. She excelled in her studies and was able to enroll in the classical high school and study Latin and Greek. As a young woman she moved to London to work as a nanny and then after learning English and taking classes in shorthand and typing, she worked at Ambrose Bank. There her dear friend Elisabetta Darden introduced her to a young Chilean scientist, Juan Alfaro Holbrook, who was studying physics at University of London. They married in 1958 in London and in 1960 their first child David Giuseppe Holbrook was born. In 1961, they set sail on a freighter ship which navigated 66 days from Liverpool to Valparaiso, as David learned to walk on the ship. They lived in Santiago briefly before her husband Juan was again offered a scholarship, this time to Cornell University, which prompted their move to Ithaca, New York. There Giovanna gave birth to their second child, Maria Cornelia Holbrook, in 1964. Following that time in Ithaca, they returned to Chile where Giovanna worked for Dr. Rondo Cameron at the Rockefeller Foundation and later took a job in tourism at the Latur agency; this was the beginning of her lifelong engagement in the travel industry. Giovanna and Juan loved to explore Chile and spent many weekends hiking in the Andes. On the advice of their friends Delores Krausch and Thomas Carr, both astronomers at the University of Florida studying in Chile, Juan applied for and received an NSF scholarship to get his Ph.D at the University of Florida in 1968. Thus began their life in Gainesville which was to become their home in the US. In 1969, her third child Andrea Luisa Holbrook-Wagman was born. In Gainesville, Giovanna worked as the secretary for the first Director of the Center for Latin American Studies, Dr. William E. Carter. Late, she re-entered tourism as a travel agent at World Travel Service. In 1974, she founded Holbrook Travel, Inc., becoming a pioneer in what was later known as ecotourism. As a farmer’s daughter, Giovanna’s close ties with nature shaped her deep interest in exploring the natural world through travel. She partnered with the academic and scientific community in offering expeditions across the natural hotspots of the world, Holbrook Travel being amongst the first travel organization to offer tours to the Galápagos Islands. Giovanna also began offering programs for bird watching and developed a lifelong friendship and collaboration with Dr. Thomas C. Emmel. Together they arranged and led countless butterfly collecting expeditions to such destinations as Papua New Guinea, Iran Jaya, Peru, Venezuela and beyond. In 1985, Giovanna founded Selva Verde Lodge & Private Reserve, which still now continues to protect roughly 500 acres of rainforest in the lowland tropics of Costa Rica. The reserve makes up a critical piece of the Mesoamerican biological corridor. Today Selva Verde has become a place where visitors from all over the world come to explore the amazing biodiversity and enjoy the warm hospitality of the Sarapiquí community. Together with her dear friend Bertha Carter, the first manager of Selva Verde, Giovanna founded the Sarapiquí Conservation Learning Center, a library and educational resource with the goal of fostering the empowerment and sustainable ways of living in the community. In addition to her passion for sharing the beauty of the natural world, Giovanna held a deep appreciation for the historic homes and structures of Gainesville. With her husband Juan, since the early 1980’s, she renovated and restored countless homes in town. From the historic MacKenzie home at 617 East University Avenue in the early 80’s, to the outstanding arts & crafts style Medlin House located at 15 SE 7th Street, the collection represents an outstanding historical legacy for Gainesville. Giovanna was a longtime parishioner at St. Augustine Catholic Church. She is survived by her former husband, Juan Alfaro Holbrook, two sisters Maria Ravetti Balduzzi, and Teresa Natta, her three children David, Cornelia, and Andrea, and five grandchildren, Julia Rasmussen Holbrook, Agatha Erminia Wagman, Juan Carson Holbrook, Duane Luca Holbrook, and Grant Anthony Fitzgerald.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday, February 3, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Augustine Catholic Church with Fr. David Ruchinski as celebrant. For those who wish, memorials may be made to Sarapiquí Conservation Learning Center in her honor.
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