Person:Beverley Holaday (1)

BEVERLEY HOLADAY, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY DIES AT 79-

    Grave side services were held for Dr. Beverley E. Holaday, a summertime resident of Long Eddy, at the Riverside Cemetery in Long Eddy on Sunday, April 2, 1979 (1989?). He had died Monday, March 27, at his home in Tuscaloosa, Ala., at the age of 79. Dr. Beverley Holaday was born in Newcastle, Indiana, on February4, 1910, the son of the late John F. and Carrie T. Holaday. At age 14, he enrolled in Erlham College in Richman, Indiana, and graduated in 1929 from Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH, with an AB degree. His first Ph.D. was awarded in experimental psychology from the University of Vienna, Austria, in 1933. During these germinal years when psychology matured into a science, Dr. Holaday was taught by Drs. Buhler, Jung, Adler and many other founders of psychology. In the summer of 1938, he studied Rorschach (ink block) testing under S.J. Beck at Michael Reese Hospital. During the same summer he studied Semantics under Count Alfred Korzybski, following earning a second doctorate in education psychology from Ohio State University in 1937. He joined the faculty Fredonia State College, Fredonia, NY, as an Associate Professor of Psychology where he met his wife, an English instructor at Fredonia.
    In 1942 Dr. Holaday initiated 19 years of active duty and reserve service with the U,S. Army as personnel consultant to the 2nd Service Command. Ultimately achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he was in the Adjutant General Corps where he served as one of none personnel consultants in the Army during World War II.
    Dr. Holaday was appointed as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1947. Named as Fullbright Professor of Psychology at Phillips University, Marburg, Germany, the Holaday family lived in Germany during 1955-56.
    In 1958, Dr. Holaday began 20 years of distinguished service to the University of Alabama, initially as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Educational Psychology. After a sabbatical studying the external degree program of New York state, Dr. Holaday returned to the Capstone to help initiate a similar program at New College in 1970. He was honored by Wittenburg University as a distinguished alumni in 1971. He retired in 1976 from his position with New College and as a Professor of Educational Psychology. Dr. Holaday served as a Consultant to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools from 1968-76; U.S. representative to the UNESCO Conference on School Reform, Hamburg, Germany, 1956; and as guest faculty member of the U.S. Air Force Air University, Maxwell Field, in 1963. He was active in state and national organizations, including scientific honorary Sigma Xi. At various times he held membership and was active in Kiwanis, American Psychological Association, state and regional psychological organizations, Psi Chi, Pi Mu Delta, and state and regional education association, as well as Kappa Phi Kappa and Phi Delta Kappa.
    Former skier and mountain climber, Dr. Holaday recently received his 50 year membership certificate for continued association with the Oesterreichischer Alpenverein, and Austria association devoted to environmental issues and mountaineering.
    Dr. Holaday was named as Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Alabama upon retirement in 1976. During almost 50 years of service as an educator, Holaday directly supervised over 100 doctoral students. He was internationally known for his contributions in the field of educational psychology and in recognition of his influence as an educator, was listed in "Who's Who in America".
    He is survived by his wife Alta W. Holaday, of Tuscaloosa, Ala; son Dr. John W. Holaday of Silver Springs, MD; a daughter, Delaney H. Brandhorst, Greenville, SC; and his grandchildren, Julie P. Hixon and James F. Brandhorst III, also of Greenville SC. A daughter, Julie Peake Holaday, predeceased him. Services were held at Christ Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa, Ala on Thursday, March 30, with the Rev. David Bargetzi officiating. Memorial contributions may be sent to the Julie Peake Holaday Memorial Fund Attn: Dr. Miriam Locke, c/o Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity, 1715 4th Street, Tuscaloosa, Ala, 35401. The fund was initiated in 1969 in the memory of Julie to assist talented students of the Arts. She was an accomplished artist and held B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Alabama.

From the Sullivan County Democrat, April 4, 1989, page 1B.

He was "named for General Beverley, with whom my grandfather John Holaday served in the Philippines at the turn of the century. He was born in Newcastle, Indiana, USA in 1909, and was an exceptional student, having completed college at Whittenburg by age 19. He was also fluent in German at that time, and chose to be part of the dawn of psychology as an extension of his love of philosophy. He was awarded a stipendium from the Univ. of Vienna, where he trained in the late 20's and early 30's, receiving a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology (knew Adler, Jung, etc.), and returned to the states during the Depression. He taught at Earlham College, and obtained a second Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at Ohio State University. He served as an officer in the Army, where he wrote many of the testing devices. He was also a friend of Wexler, with whom he constructed some of the early tests. He was not extensively published, but his thesis (in German) is considered by some to be a landmark in studies of perception. Bleutler, and many other philosophers/psychologists were close friends.

Our Family spent a year on a Fullbright Professorship at the Phillips University in Marburg, Germany, in 1955-1956. My two sisters and I attended German schools (I went to the Gymnasium Phillipinum), and Germany became part of our hearts. I relish his 50 year pin as a member of the Österreichischen Alpenverein, where I am also a member. We spend many wonderful times in Mallnitz, a tiny town in the Österreich where he (and later we) learned to ski."

Excerpt from a letter written by son John, 10/2001.

Dear Lucile (Holaday) Smith, The first Holaday to come to Indiana was Thomas Holaday, who came from Yadkin County, North Carolina. We tried to get some information one summer when we were in Yadkinville, but didn't have any luck since in the days when they came to Indiana, Yadkin County was very large and included what is now Winston Salem. Thomas left something like 11 children behind him in Carolina and had around 13 more by his next wife after he migrated to Indiana. His first born son was Oliver Holaday, whom you probably remember since he died shortly after I was born. I think that I have most of the names of his brothers and sisters, as well as grandfather Eli could remember them. Our grandfather was the oldest son of Oliver's 13 or so children. Others included Uncle Dock (his real name is on the tombstone in Mooreland), Uncle Albert (who lived in Muncie), a set of twins who did not live to maturity, and I believe a William Holaday. I have forgotten the name of grandmother Niccum, and I'm not even sure how the last name is spelled. Our grandmother was Eunice Curry. She had a sister who married a Freeman and produced a whole host of Freeman cousins. (Do you remember the niece also named Eunice who stayed with grandmother? Do you remember the niece Addie who couldn't talk plainly?) She also had a brother Nate who, when I was quite young, lived in Winchester with one of his sons. I remember seeing Nate on several occasions, and I somehow have the feeling that he was a half brother instead of a full brother. You remember I'm sure, that Thomas, Oliver, Eli, John, and Harley are all buried in Mooreland. You probably also know the location of the original home which was on land entered by Thomas Holaday. We have visited it many times, primarily to see if we could locate any of the old loom that my father remembered watching his grandmother use. We did not find any of it.

Unfortunately I have forgotten the exact date when the Holaday's first came to Indiana but I know it was in the first quarter of the 1800's. After all, I was born in 1910 and Oliver died that same year when he was getting close to 100, as I recall it. Thomas was primarily a farmer, but Oliver was sort of a jack of all trades. He farmed some, cobbled some, had a little store, and was also, so I remember hearing, one of the loudest and best preachers in the backwoods. Did you ever hear grandfather Eli tell the story of his first venture into cobbling? One of the neighbors brought in a fine piece of deer skin and since Oliver wasn't available for some reason, grandfather (at what tender age I never knew) made the shoes which the man pronounced the finest pair he had ever had made. In spite of our remembrances of grandmother Eunice as a fine person, it is my recollection that the Currys weren't considered very highly in the area. Those that I knew--Nate and his son and family--were pretty much what we would call "poor whites" who lived in a dilapidated house on the outskirts of Winchester. Both Curry and Holaday (usually spelled with two L's or with two l's and an "i" instead of a "a") are common southern names. We frequently visit some very close "Curry" friends who have a beautiful plantation south of Nashville, Tennessee. Although he and I can not find a common ancestral name, we like to claim distant kinship. A number of years ago when I was in Tallahassee I was chatting with the Dean of the Graduate School at Florida State who, when he found out that I had a daughter named Julie, called home and invited me out to have lunch with him and his wife. She had also been a Julie Holladay, from Virginia. Mrs. Carrothers said that of course all Holladays were related and that every year many of them gather at a beautiful plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia, for a reunion. I have forgotten all of the details of the story but I hope to get them soon for I have reestablished contact with the Carrothers family. It seems that the first Holladay in the country was the half-brother of the decorated officer in American history. When he died, without heirs, the plantation passed to the Holladays and became the center of the whole clan. When we were in Fredericksburg a number of years ago I phoned several people listed in the directory by the name of Holladay but couldn't locate anyone who could give me the whole story. (From Beverley Holaday, to his cousin Margaret Lucile Holiday)

1. ↑ Cathy Lippert. The family files of Catherine Lippert, August, 2001.
2. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).