Jimmy D. Holland

Jimmy D. Holland, 74, died in the late evening hours of Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023 at his home in College Station, Texas.

He was born on September 22, 1948 in Texarkana to Herbert and Louise (Anderson) Holland and always took pride in being a native Texan. When he was seven years old, his family moved to Shreveport, Louisiana where he spent most of his public school years. He graduated as Valedictorian of Woodlawn High School and attended Louisiana State University as a National Merit Scholar. At LSU, he earned both a BS in Mathematics and an MA in English before attending law school at Vanderbilt University, completing his JD in 1975. While at Vanderbilt, he was associate editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and received the Law Review Award for best student article in 1975.

Jimmy’s first position was as a law clerk to Judge Carleton Harris, Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, who, as Jimmy often repeated, assured him that, “Son, God intended you to be a lawyer.” Upon completing his clerkship, he was accepted following Judge Harris’s recommendation, into the firm of Friday, Eldredge, and Clark in Little Rock, first as a tax lawyer and then as a bond lawyer. Eager to return to his Texas roots, he took his bond lawyer credentials to Hutchinson Price in Dallas in 1983 and then to Kelly, Hart, and Hallman in Fort Worth in 1985.

A major change in Jimmy’s career came in 1990 when a Kelly, Hart, and Hallman client hired him as general counsel of American Savings Bank in Irvine, California. He found that working as general counsel allowed him to develop and use a challenging variety of legal skills. Despite brief stints at Jones Walker in Baton Rouge and Locke Lord in Dallas, he spent most of his remaining career as general counsel for several small technology and communications companies.

Jimmy’s diversity of legal experience was more than matched by the variety of his leisure interests; in music, from opera to 60’s rock; in history, from ancient Roman times to World War II; in literature, from Chaucer to spy thrillers; and in sports, from college football to ice hockey. He had a phenomenal memory and often amazed even those who knew best by the details he remembered from books he may have read decades ago.

None of these talents protected him from personal family struggles. He finally found a peaceful and fulfilling life when met Ruth Quebe, who he married in 2005. He also found a deeper commitment to the church and to his faith which gave him true spiritual strength in his final battle with metastatic lung cancer. He departed this life trusting in God and holding the hand of his beloved wife.

He is preceded in death by his parents; his uncle and aunt, Claude and Malory King; and his cousin, Claudine King Wiggins.

Jimmy is survived by his loving wife, Ruth; his lifelong friends, Dale Davison and Will Durant; cousin-in-law, Billy Wiggins; and his cherished cat, Felix.

Memorials may be given to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 217 W. 26^th Street, Bryan Texas 77803 or online https://www.standrewsbcs.org/give-online.