Past lectures

FRED GARRIGUS HOLLOWAY

Fourth President,
Western Maryland College
1935 - 1947

A lectureship in literature seems wholly appropriate as a partial recognition of Fred Garrigus Holloway. Underneath his widely acknowledged skills as a preacher, administrator and teacher, his love of music and of literature was reflected in everything he has touched. Indeed, his last regular appointment at Morris Harvey College was as Evan Professor of English, and his lectures there, centered upon Emily Dickinson and contemporary poetry, typically concerned themselves with ethical values and the magic of language.

A graduate in the Western Maryland College class of 1919, he went on to earn a divinity degree from Drew University, and was ordained by the Methodist Protestant church in 1921. Married to Winifred Jackson soon after, he served charges in Delaware, Virginia and Maryland before he was called to Westminster Theological Seminary in 1927 as Professor of Biblical Languages. There, his emergence as one of the church's most powerful preachers and as a promising young administrator led to the presidency of the Seminary, and, after a short time, to the presidency of the College itself. In a critical period of growth and change, his insistence on academic excellence and collegiality made a deep and lasting impression on the institution, and his brilliant sermons and poetry readings enlivened a difficult decade.

In 1947, he left "The Hill" to become President of Drew University, and in 1960 he was made Bishop of West Virginia in the United Methodist Church, retiring from that post in 1968. Over the years, he was an active participant in the Uniting Conference of Methodism in 1939, a member of the governing body of the National Council of Churches, the head of the Methodist Church Board of Hospitals and Homes, and a trustee of several colleges. Throughout it all, however, his chief delight has been the development and encouragement of the human spirit. Dr. Holloway died on June 1, 1988, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Literature, especially poetry, is an integral part of his intellectual curriculum. Hence, the college, though well aware of his leadership in church and in education, has elected to present these annual scholarly lectures as a lasting tribute to one of Fred Holloway's deepest commitments.