Arthur John Holden Jr. died on Tuesday, February 5, 2002 at Wake Robin in Shelburne, Vermont after a very long, productive, and happy life. He was born in West Newton, Massachusetts, on September 18, 1900. Although Vermont residents, his parents, Frances Coleman Holden and Arthur John Holden Sr., were living in Massachusetts for a short period at that time for business reasons.
John graduated from Westminster School and Harvard College. He started college aiming at a career in engineering, but after a summer of pushing wheelbarrows of dirt at a construction site he decided that he didn't want to spend his life tearing apart the earth, and soon chose education as his career. His first two teaching posts were at the Manual Training High School[1] in Louisville, Kentucky and Roxbury Latin School in Massachusetts.
A job with the Vermont Country Life Commission[2] brought John back to Vermont, and led to teaching jobs at Maple Corner in Calais, and then at East Montpelier's Morse School. In 1933, during his years at the Morse School, John married Polly Bullard of Elmira, New York. They bought a house in East Montpelier which has remained the center of their family life ever since. The strong roots they put down in Washington County continue to enrich the life of the family.
After work on an Ed.D. at Columbia University Teachers College[3], John became the superintendent of schools in Danville, Vermont. His territory included numerous rural one-room schools. Winter visits were on some roads which had been plowed, and others on which the snow had been compacted by horses dragging a door-like plate of boards over it. A big shovel and a substantial jack were part of John's standard equipment.
After six years in Danville, John taught at Middlebury College and then did community outreach for Geneseo State College([4]) in Geneseo, New York. In 1949 he became Commissioner of Education for the State of Vermont, a job he held until his retirement in 1965. During this time he served a term as chairman of the national organization of Chief State School Officers. In 1958, while in this position, he was a member of a group of educators who were the American half of the first cultural exchange between the U.S. and Soviet Union.
Not ready to take it easy after retirement, John, with Polly, went to Newton Massachusetts to work for the Education Development Center. This was an organization dedicated to helping public schools improve the quality of the education they provide. Then, on an interim basis, in 1970-71, John served as president of Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont.
Moving back to East Montpelier, John had the time to pursue research in environmental issues, long an interest of his. For several years he gave a course titled "Man and the Environment in Vermont History" at Johnson State College. It focussed on the work of George Perkins Marsh, a Vermonter who was one of the earliest American environmentalists. John was the first chairman of Vermont's District Five Environmental Commission, and also served on the Board of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. He actively supported a number of national organizations that work on environmental issues.
At age 75 John took up a new career, in the theater: he played lead roles in many productions of both the Plainfield Little Theater and the Undadilla theater. He thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity this gave him to make many friendships in the younger generation. John also sang in the Barre Choraleers and the choir of the Adamant Methodist Church.
John loved the outdoors. In warm weather he hiked, and in the winter he skied[5]. He was one of Vermont's very early skiers, using the slopes of Mt. Anthony in Bennington when he was a boy, and the Toll Road on Mt. Mansfield later. With no lifts, a day's skiing on Mt. Mansfield consisted of walking up to the summit and then skiing down. He enjoyed some hiking trips in Europe as a young man; at one point he climbed the Matterhorn two days in a row. John spent his 80th birthday on a 10-day hiking trip in the Alps.
John was predeceased by his sisters Persis Sibley Holden and Frances Holden Lamb, and his brothers Waldo Coleman Holden and Richard Stedman Holden.
John leaves his wife, Polly; his four children and three children-in-law: Sally (Sarah) and John Thompson of Milton, Ontario, Canada; Spike (Coleman) Holden and Janet McLeod of East Montpelier; Bonnie and Walter Carter of Newton Center, Massachusetts; Martha Holden of East Montpelier. He also leaves his four grand-children and one grand-child-in-law: Norman Carter, Loring Holden, Catherine Carter, and Jessica Holden Sherwood and Jesse Sherwood. He is also remembered with great affection by his sister-in-law, Mrs. Richard (Mathew) Holden, twelve nieces and nephews, their spouses and their children.
The family is very appreciative of the support provided to John by the staff on the Skilled Nursing Unit at Wake Robin, and the special help given to him by Bill Nedde, Barbara Jordan, Kristen Borquist and Liz Fukushima. All these people created a friendly and caring atmosphere for John's last years.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Vermont Natural Resources Council, 9 Bailey Avenue, Montpelier, VT 05602.
The funeral service will take place Saturday, Feb. 9, at 3 p.m. in the Adamant Methodist Church in Adamant. Following the ceremony, a reception will be held in the Capitol Plaza (formerly the Montpelier Tavern) in Montpelier. Friends who cannot attend the funeral are cordially invited to come to the reception.
Perhaps, like me, you find that the whizzing rush of downhill skiing is too torturous to enjoy, but can't resist a good about any outdoors subject. If so, savor these parting words from another Appalachia ski zealot, John Holden, recorded in 1930: "The skis are taken outdoors and clampd on. If only time didn't go so fast! The run will be finished before we know it. One gazes down toward the valley, along the way that was accomplished by so many hours of labor. What a spendthrift thought, to fly heedlessly past all those scenes of exertion! But this view! We have worked from before sunrise until after noon to win it -- this sensation of being on top of the world"