[ALBUM] [INDIANA UNIVERSITY] YOUTH OF A BUSINESSMAN

Richard Charles Holmquist (1915-2008) was the first Executive Director of the Virginia Industrialization Group (VIG), impacted the educational landscape throughout Virginia to this day. After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education overturned the prevailing ‘separate but equal’ approach to schooling, many Southern communities organized to resist racial integration. This “Massive Resistance” movement was championed by then-governor J. Lindsay Almond. Virginia business leaders formed the VIG in 1958 to try and improve the business climate resulting from lengthy school closings for much of the population. Holmquist was hired in 1961 as their first Executive Director, and served three years promoting the establishment of a state-wide technical college system. He traveled all around Virginia speaking with civic leaders about the benefits of industrial development. ~~Holmquist’s album is a 7 ¼” x 11 ½” x 2” black leather-covered album with black paper pages bound with string and embossed with his name. It contains 50 pages of black and white photos chronicling his youth in the Midwest through his naval service in WWII, followed by some 1964 color snapshots from his VIG speaking tour. Holmquist was the eldest of 5 children, belonged to Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity at Indiana University, and married in 1941 before serving in WWII as Navy ensign. From sitting on a donkey with Santa Claus in 1918 through shipping off to Europe in uniform, the album offers a pleasant journey through time in captioned memories.~~1 loose page, a few loose photos. Wear on covers. Good+ ~.