John Houlder

Professor John Houlder
John Houlder with GAWOE
Born	John Maurice Houlder (1916-02-20)20 February 1916 Epsom, Surrey
Died	2 February 2012(2012-02-02) (aged 95)
Residence	England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Engineer, Owner of Houlder Ltd, Operator of Elstree Aerodrome
Known for	Ship design
Spouse(s)	Rody
Awards	CBE, MBE

John Maurice Houlder CBE MBE(Mil.) (February 20, 1916 – February 2, 2012) was a British engineer, operator of Elstree Aerodrome. He was a pioneer in marine operations and design and was involved with the Kingsnorth Marine Drilling vessels. His first diving support vessel was the Oregis originally built for Houlder as an Ore carrier, which he had converted for diving. Following this he met Thor Haavie, a marine architect, at an exhibition where he was showing a design for a semisubmersible diving support vessel. Houlder build this vessel in the mid 1970s at the Aker Yard in Norway. Somehow the vessel came to be named after him and is still operating now as "Uncle John". The next project was the "Orelia" diving support vessel which is a barge like vessel with four independent diesel driven thrusters one in each corner.