Luncheon raises $15,600 in pledges, gifts for Holland Statue

The Dr. Jerome H. Holland Statue Committee recently held a June 25 luncheon with a group of DSU alumni, which culminated in $11,100 in donations toward the permanent memorial that is to be erected in honor of the sixth president in the history of the institution.

The committee shared details concerning the plans to commission a sculptor artist to create a statue likeness of Dr. Holland that will be placed on an outdoor location on the DSU campus.

During the event, it was also announced that the DSU Class of 1965 has donated $10,000 toward the effort. Combining that gift with the June 25 luncheon donations and other previous gifts, more than $29,000 has been raised toward the statue.

During the lunch there were also a number of people who made pledges to donate, totaling $4,500.

Dr. Holland – president from 1953-1960 of then-Delaware State College – is credited with providing the critical leadership needed to navigate the College through the most difficult decade of its history. Amid forces in the state that threatened to close the institution, Dr. Holland brought about improvements at DSC that ensured its survival and established a foundation that future presidents would build upon.

During the luncheon, a number of alumni who were students during the Holland years shared remembrances of the celebrated president.

Halvin Blockson, Class of 1961, said he came from a “dirt-poor” family. He said he reached a point in his undergraduate years that it appeared he couldn’t continue at DSC, because he had run out of money. He credits Dr. Holland with keeping him in school.

“Dr. Jerome ‘Brud’ Holland personally came to me and told me ‘We are going to find a way for you to stay’,” said Mr. Blockson. “So he gave me a job at his house.”