In 1957, the residents of El Encanto Estates asked that Camino Miramonte be renamed.
Another street with the same name ran through the center of their tony neighborhood, and they worried that the duplication was confusing. Several names were suggested, and the decision was made to rename the street after Richard Earl Kolb, who had died the year before.
Kolb was born on July 20, 1890, in Brookston, Ind., to Richard and Sabra (Penner) Kolb. His family's arrival in the United States dates back to 1770, when a large group from Bavaria, Germany, settled in Pennsylvania. Many of the men in his family fought in the Revolutionary War.
His father, also named Richard, served in the Civil War and was wounded. The younger arrived in Arizona in February 1913 after a short stint in California. He homesteaded in the San Pedro Valley, near Hereford, with his father and one sister. The homesteading didn't last long - despite government advertising to the contrary, the land wasn't good for dry farming or growing beans, according to a letter by Kolb's wife, Harriet.
Kolb worked at the Tombstone City Courthouse until the beginning of World War I, when he entered the Army for 22 months.
During the Great Depression, he moved to Tucson and worked at a gas station for $60 per month. He was a deputy in charge of voter registration in the Pima County Recorder's Office; and then worked for the County Assessor's Office for 11 years. In 1947, he became clerk of the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
He married Harriet O'Connor in Tombstone in 1928 and honeymooned at the Grand Canyon. His wife had come to Arizona in 1910 with her family; her father had been an agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The couple had one son, John Richard Kolb, in 1936. He went on to work for the Pima County Assessor's Office for 34 years. Richard Kolb died in 1956 at the Veterans Hospital.
Harriet Kolb wrote in a Nov. 29, 1982, letter to Chuck Huckelberry, then Pima County director of transportation, that Kolb "is an honorable name and worthy of a little space in Arizona history."
Mrs. Kolb, here is that little bit of space you requested.
Editor's note
Each week the Star tells the stories behind Tucson street names. If you have streets to suggest or stories to share, contact writer David Leighton at streetsmarts@azstarnet.com
Sources: A special thank you to Alexandria Caster of the Arizona Historical Society "Death Claims Richard Kolb," Arizona Daily Star, June 1956 "Road Named in Honor of Richard Kolb," Tucson Citizen, Jan. 25, 1957 Sylvia Strauss-Kolb (Richard Kolb's daughter-in-law) Spencer Kolb (Richard Kolb's grandson)
