[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 74 (Friday, May 25, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S5691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO FRED HOLT

 Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, a great educator and a dear 
friend of my family died earlier this month. Fred R. Holt was a school 
superintendent in my hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin from 1959 to 
1978, and as the Janesville Gazette noted, his influence will echo in 
Janesville classrooms for years.
  He oversaw the Janesville school system during one of its most 
challenging times, when the baby boom generation was rapidly increasing 
the school population. His gifted leadership helped to foster a climate 
that was supportive of students and teachers alike. As Fred's secretary 
for many years, Carol Smith, said, he cared for everyone on his staff 
as well as the students, and always did his best for them.
  Fred was deeply committed to our schools. He attended school in 
Janesville, and was a teacher himself, in Edgerton, Wisconsin and in 
other districts before becoming Janesville's superintendent, and he 
knew how valuable a good teacher is. As a Janesville Gazette article 
recalled, Fred would send his administrators to teacher-training 
institutions across the Midwest to recruit top teaching prospects. As 
products of Fred Holt's Janesville schools, my brother, sisters, and I 
can attest to the success of his efforts. Thousands of Janesville 
families were the beneficiaries of Fred Holt's foresight and 
initiative.
  I had the privilege of working with Fred after he retired when I 
served in the Wisconsin State Senate. He was an enormously effective 
advocate, and generously shared his time counseling troubled youth, 
heading a volunteer service bureau, and helping to renovate the 
Janesville Senior Center. In 1987, his work was recognized when he was 
named one of Wisconsin's 10 admired seniors.
  Fred Holt's legacy is evident in Janesville and across the country. I 
am a part of that legacy. And so are tens of thousands of business 
people and auto workers, physicians and police officers, artists and 
plumbers, educators, machinists, farmers, and others who have become 
who they are in large part because of the education they received 
growing up in Janesville. We owe him an enormous debt.

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