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SCC’s library is named for Holt
During a Sept. 5 ceremony, Southwestern Community College officials named the school’s library for Sylva attorney Paul Holt, one of SCC’s “founding fathers” and a longtime trustee.
“Paul helped get the community behind the project and built support among Macon, Jackson and Swain counties and the Reservation to start Southwestern more than 40 years ago,” said Wayne Hooper, former chairman of Jackson County’s commissioners.
Except for a brief stint in 1968, Holt has served as an SCC trustee since the institution’s 1964 beginnings as a satellite of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Institute.
“It was Paul’s sound advice and leadership that helped make the college what it is now,” said Hooper. “It’s recognized as the number-four community college in the nation.”
With Southwestern Community College President Cecil Groves, right, making the dedication, Paul Holt’s wife, Brenda Oliver, left, and son, Flip Holt of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., unveil the portrait that will hang in the Holt Library. During a Sept. 5 dedication ceremony, SCC’s library was named for Paul Holt, one of the college’s “founding fathers” and a long-time trustee.
“The change in the college since its beginnings has been literally stunning,” said U.S. District Court Judge Lacy Thornburg of Webster. “Paul has been a major leader in the college’s success.”
Holt was instrumental in securing funding for SCC and for managing those funds with maximum effectiveness, according to Thornburg. Holt’s former law partner.
A Sylva attorney since 1957, Holt and his late wife Pat moved here from Greensboro when he joined Thornburg and David Hall’s law firm. A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, Holt earned his law degree at UNC Law School.
“Paul used to work in construction; he did so to help pay for his education,” said Sue Nations, superintendent of Jackson County Public Schools. “He’s been a builder of education, too,” Nations said of the man who recently ended 50 years as the attorney for the local school board. “He has the foresight to know how important education is to our young people.”
Nations told how Holt “built the foundation and corners of Southwestern and also helped build resources, too, in bringing in funding.”
In officially naming the building in honor of Holt, SCC Board of Trustees Chairman Conrad Burrell described him as “a passionate advocate for education.”
“Paul has given of himself unselfishly for more than 40 years to Southwestern and his counsel and guidance have proved invaluable,” Burrell said.
As his wife of six years, Brenda Oliver, and son, Flip Holt of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., unveiled his portrait that will hang in the library, Holt said, “When we started back in 1964, none of us really dreamed that this college would be what it is today.”
Holt detailed many of SCC’s advancements since its beginnings more than four decades ago.
“When we were trying to get monies to buy lumber, bricks, masonry blocks and plumbing materials for the first trade classes, who would have thought that we would have a $60,000 computerized mannequin that can be programmed for heart attacks, other illnesses and injuries for use by the nursing program and the emergency medical program?”
SCC President Cecil Groves voiced his appreciation to Holt for “his foresight on many issues,” most recently in purchasing property for expansion.
“Soon this campus will have a new look, thanks to Paul,” Groves said.
Groves described the planned entranceway and road that will join N.C. 107.
“A whole new campus will emerge with this library as a central focus,” Groves said. “Paul was instrumental in Southwestern’s beginning back in 1964, has been an educational advocate all these years and is responsible for helping us secure the property to expand and to showcase the library. It’s only fitting we name that library after him.”
In accepting the honor, Holt expressed appreciation to all those who have contributed to SCC through the years.
“A philosopher once said that no matter what language you use or how many adjectives you use, no words express thanks, appreciation and gratitude more than ‘thank you.’ I feel very humble, appreciative and honored by this occasion. To all those responsible, to those who have helped SCC grow and develop and to those responsible for this honor – thank you.”
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