James Richard Logan Holdsworth '45
Jim Holdsworth died of cancer on September 14, 2006, at Parker Ridge, Blue Hill, ME. He was eighty-three.
Jim was born in Stoughton, MA, and grew up in Amherst, where his father was professor of forestry and wildlife management at the Univ. of Massachusetts. There he met and married Elizabeth Walsh, daughter of Tommy Walsh, known affectionately as haberdasher to generations of Amherst students. They had recently celebrated sixty years of marriage.
Jim came to Amherst College from Franklin & Marshall Academy where, as with so many of his classmates, his college years were punctuated by World War II. He served as a staff sergeant in the First Allied Airborne in the European theater.
Jim’s professional career was in trade association and corporate advertising and public relations. He was the advertising manager for the American Council of Life Insurance from 1977 to his retirement in 1987. Previously, he was the manager of communications and consumer market development for the Copper Development Association in New York. Jim was vice president and copy chief for MacDonald, Devy & Holdsworth Advertising, Inc. in Schenectady. He also held several positions at the General Electric Co. from 1948 to 1962.
Jim was known as a man of great integrity, generosity, and humor—a true gentleman who redefined that overworked title. For many years he served as warden of St. Francis-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church and as chairman of the development committee of the Blue Hill Memorial Hospital.
He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children, Thomas W., James R. L. Jr. and Elizabeth Malaby, and five grandchildren.
To all members of Jim Holdsworth’s family, our Class extends its sincere condolences.
—Daniel B. Leavitt ’45