Jerome H. Holland

Jerome Heartwell "Brud" Holland (January 9, 1916 – January 13, 1985) was an American university president and diplomat. He was the first African American to play football at Cornell University, and was chosen as an All American in 1937 and 1938. He was also the first African American to chair the American Red Cross Board of Governors, which named its Laboratory for the Biomedical Sciences in his honor.^[1] He was the first African-American to sit on the board of the New York Stock Exchange (1972), and the first appointed to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's governing body, "The Corporation".^[2][3][4]

Career[]

After graduating Cornell and teaching at Lincoln University, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, receiving his PhD in 1950. In 1953, he became president of the historically black Delaware State College, serving six years before succeeding as the ninth president of Hampton Institute, from 1960 to 1970. In that year, he became ambassador to Sweden under President Richard Nixon.

He became a member of the College Football Hall of Fame in 1965. In 1972, the NCAA awarded Holland its Theodore Roosevelt Award.^[5]

Family[]

Holland was one of 13 children. His son, Joe Holland, one of ten children,^[6] also played for Cornell. He was selected as a third team All-American running back by the Associated Press for the 1978 College Football All-America Team, and as a graduate student with a 3.70 GPA, the same year, as an Academic All American. In 1991, he became a member of the Academic Hall of Fame.^[7] An attorney, playwright and entrepreneur, Joe Holland is a Republican, as was his father. He filed as a candidate for Governor of New York in the 2018 election.^[8]

References[]

Sources[]

• Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom