Tony Palomo
Advisor and Author
Antonio “Tony” Palomo (1931 – 2013) received his early education in Guam schools before entering Belmont Abbey College Preparatory School, North Carolina and graduating in 1950. In 1954 he earned a bachelor of science degree in journalism from Marquette University, Wisconsin.
Palomo was a noted Guam historian and an instructor at both the University of Guam and Guam Community College as a History of Guam instructor. He was also a part-time History of Guam instructor at Academy of Our Lady of Guam.
Palomo is a former journalist, senator and administrator. He is the author of An Island in Agony, published in 1984, which tells of the experience of Chamorros during the Guam occupation of World War II. Palomo was ten years old when Japanese military forces attacked Guam on 8 December 1941.
Palomo was assistant managing editor and sports editor of the Guam Daily News (predecessor of the Pacific Daily News) from December 1954 to December 1963, and was a stringer for the Associated Press and the Pacific Stars and Stripes. He served three terms as a senator in the 12th, 14th, and 15th Guam legislatures and then worked for the US Department of the Interior for twelve years. Additionally, he served as presiding officer of the First Constitutional Convention of Guam in 1969 and 1970, which reviewed the Organic Act of Guam, and recommended changes to the federal law.
Palomo served as museum director/administrator for the Guam Museum for eleven years, from December 1995 to June 2007. During his tenure, Palomo oversaw a museum exhibit at Micronesia Mall that opened in April 2004 portraying the different historical eras of Guam. This exhibit attracted more than 200,000 patrons of which about sixty percent were tourists from Japan.
Family was a source of pride for Palomo and he celebrated his roles as husband, father to ten children, and grandfather to fourteen grandchildren. He and his wife Margaret celebrated fifty years of marriage in 2008. He died in 2013.