Obituary of John Holland Dr. John William (Jack) Holland died at his home in Toronto, Ontario, on October 10, 2018. He lived with Parkinson’s disease for thirty years and he never let it slow him down. He was born September 14th, 1929, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Norbert Russell (Jack) and Agnes Buckley Holland and lived his early years in Oklahoma and Texas.
Jack’s parents moved to upstate NY in the early 1940’s. In 1942, Jack’s father opened a photography studio in Corning, NY, and in 1944 the family moved to Painted Post. Jack attended Corning Free Academy and after classes ended for the day he helped his parents in the studio.
Around this time his father bought a small private plane for the business. Jack and his father took flying lessons from Joe Costa in Painted Post. Jack got his private pilot license on his 16th birthday.
He met Mary Bavis, who became his wife of sixty years, at Corning Free Academy. They went to one dance together in high school, but met again a couple years after high school. As Jack once wrote, “In 1950, Mary and I took a closer look at one another and quickly decided to get married.
What followed for the next 60 years was mostly laughter, hard work, love and the realization from time to time that it cannot last forever. Mary died on her 83rd birthday, September 30, 2012”. Jack spent two years in the army in the early 1950s and had the good fortune to spend some of his military career in post-war Germany where he developed a taste for Czech beer.
Jack attended Cornell University from 1947 to 1949. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Rochester in 1956 and his Master’s Degree in Education from Elmira College in 1962. Jack received his PhD in Comparative Education and Economics from Syracuse University in 1966.
In 1966 Jack became a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, a graduate school of the University of Toronto. He and Mary and their six children moved to Toronto in September of that year. Jack taught, did research, wrote, and kept things lively at “The Institute” until June 1995 when he retired.
Mary and Jack had a home on Cayuga Lake in Aurora, NY, and cherished the time that they spent there with their extended family and friends. Jack was lucky in life and in his last years had the good fortune to be assisted by a remarkable group of people (Team Jack). Jack’s family is very grateful to Connie, Karima, Christina, Fe, Ian, Aida, and Kaysia.
They are an incredible team. Thank you to Marilyn for her friendship and support. Jack is survived by six of his children: Laura (Jay), Clare, Lida (Graeme), Bill (Susanne), Jennifer (Glen), and John (Pam), and six grandchildren: Will, Liz, Nick, Kate, Julia, and Matt.
He is also survived by two sisters, Mary Freeman (Greenbrae, CA) and Lida Churchville (Providence, RI), his sister-in-law, Clare Bavis (Corning, NY) and eight nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary, who passed away in 2012, and daughter, Leslie, who died in the flu epidemic of 1957. Private memorial services will be held at the convenience of the family.
Burial will be at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Corning, NY.
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