AUGUSTA — Robert Bryant, a Navy veteran of World War II, was named Veteran of the Month for April at the Maine Veterans’ Home

Bryant, son of George and Myrtle Bryant, was born on Dec. 17, 1925, in Avon Park, Fla., on his grandparents’ farm — the first experimental vegetable farm in Florida.

Bryant’s paternal grandmother was from Dresden, Germany. His maternal grandparents, successful ship traders, lived on an island offshore from Honduras where Bryant’s mother was raised. When Bryant was six months old, his parents returned to Honduras to raise their family. As a young boy he traveled by ship with his father for United Fruit Company, taking shiploads of Chiquita bananas to New Orleans and work sites along the Atlantic coast of Tela, Honduras.

After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Navy, serving with the amphibious force from Feb. 8, 1944, through May 24, 1946, in the Philippines, Japan and China. Upon his discharge from the Navy, Bryant took a long rest in the mountains of Honduras and Guatemala. Throughout his life, he has enjoyed swimming, scuba diving, hunting, fishing and, after inheriting his father’s camera, photography.

After completing his undergraduate studies at Texas A&M College, Bryant worked as a mechanical engineer for a major corporation and later for a private consulting firm. His work took him to such places as Cuba, Venezuela and Singapore.

Bryant married Maria Hoffman in 1959 in Venezuela. Together they have a son, Andres, and a daughter, Karola. He also has a son, Robert, and a daughter, Deborah, from a previous marriage. In 1973, Bryant moved his family to Augusta to accept a job offer at Statler Tissue. He retired from Statler when the mill closed. He moved to the residential care unit at Maine Veterans’ Home in the spring of 2012.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.