Dr. Keith D. Holmes Sr.
This article describes the life and career of Dr. Keith D. Holmes, Sr., Professor Emeritus, School of Education. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: Askew, Susan. "Dr. Keith D. Holmes Sr.," ECU Report, January 1994, Volume 25, No. 1.
A member of the School of Education faculty from 1951 to 1976, Keith D. Holmes Sr. remains a favorite among his former students and colleagues.
Dr. Holmes is remembered by his students for the unusual way he began and ended each class.
Students would enter the classroom each day to find a bit of philosophy written on the blackboard, such as "More trouble is caused by misunderstanding than by intent."As he dismissed class he'd say, "So long, you lucky people," to remind students that they were fortunate to be future teachers.
"Dr. Holmes is one of those professors that the students truly loved," said Mabel Laughter, hired in 1974 to fill the vacancy Holmes' retirement two years later would create. "There were 180 students enrolled in his very last class.Everybody wanted to take his class before he retired," she said.
Margaret Cude Ward '62, '63 was a student of Dr. Holmes in her undergraduate years and later was his graduate assistant.She remembers him as a "very motivating professor" with a "positive attitude and a permanent smile."
"He always tried to instill self confidence in his students," Ward said, "which is very important for teachers.When I was teaching school, I used the reading program and materials that he taught. They're still the most effective way to teach children to read, I believe."
Holmes is recognized as a pioneer in reading education, having developed a visual-phonic method for teaching children to read. Specializing in problem learners, Holmes established reading clinics and conducted extensive reading staff development for school systems throughout eastern North Carolina and parts of Virginia.
In 1992 he was honored with the formal naming of the reading center he established in the School of Education. The Keith D. Holmes Reading Center, under the direction of Betty Wheatley, offers personalized help to students who wish to sharpen their reading abililties and skills in such areas as note taking, time management and test performance.It also provides reading tutors for area school children and serves as a repository for reading and language arts teaching materials.
Holmes is remembered by countless successful adults today for having taught them to read when others had failed.Many of the children considered "slow learners" before they attended Holmes' summer reading clinics are highly respected professionals today.
Hanging on walls in the Holmes Reading Center are two of Holmes' favorite personal mementos. One is a poem, From Alma Mater: A Promise to You , which he wrote about East Carolina's devotion to students.In 1992, the School of Education and its alumni professional society had the poem hand-copied in calligraphy and framed, then presented to him.
Also hanging in the reading center is a painting of Holmes working with two young school children, commissioned for him by the Hertford County school system in gratitude for his work with the children of that county. The portrait hung in the library of his home until recently, when he donated it to the university.
During his tenure at East Carolina, Holmes spent much of his time in the field, supervising student teachers and conducting reading education seminars for teachers.
Frequently he was invited to lecture in southern and central Virginia."On those occasions, I would take a dozen or so of my students to take charge of the classrooms while the teachers attended my lectures in an auditorium.My students gained invaluable classroom experience, while the teachers enjoyed not having to hire substitutes," he said.
President John D. Messick brought Holmes to East Carolina in 1951 from his native New York.Born in North Pitcher, N.Y., Holmes was educated at Oswego State Teachers College, at Columbia University, and at Cornell where he earned the Ph.D. degree.
Before he came to East Carolina, he had been a school teacher and principal in the New York public schools.
Holmes began to develop his reading education theories while in the doctoral program at Cornell. There, he worked with college students and illiterate adults in remedial reading.
The idea, visual-phonic reading, was brilliant in its simplicity and evolved from something one of his adult students said in class.
"One of them spoke up and said, 'Mr. Holmes, I can read these words, but I can't write or spell them.' It stunned me for a moment," Holmes said, "then I realized that you can't separate the language arts.I realized then that if they couldn't comprehend, write and spell what they had read, then they were still illiterate.
Holmes went on to publish a number of books on the subject, the last of which was completed in 1989 -- 13 years after his retirement from East Carolina University.
Among Holmes' publications is a book of a different nature.Published in 1982, Songs of the Maggodee is a book of lyric poetry with autobiographical sketches of his life.
Several of the poems in Songs are about Holmes' life in Boones Mill, Va., where he lives with Adriana, his wife of 12 years.After a newspaper article appeared in The Roanoke Times about Holmes and his book of poetry, he was dubbed "Virginia's mountain poet" by area residents.
Although they love their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Holmes said he and Adriana plan to sell the property and return to Greenville.They wish to be near their many East Carolina friends and Holmes' oldest son, Dr. Keith Holmes Jr. '64, who is director of Analytical Development Laboratories at Burroughs Wellcome Co. in Greenville.
Dr. Holmes said he often thinks about his formers students in the School of Education.
From Alma Mater: A Promise to You
Bring me your vision,
your courage, your fears;
Bring me your heartaches --
yes, bring me your tears.
Bring me your friendship
and kindness each day;
Bring me your laughter
and smiles all the way.
Bring me a good measure
of song in your soul;
Sing out in full chorus,
play out your new role.
Bring me your promise
of loyal acclaim;
Hold high these new laurels --
guard well our name.
Bring me some treasure
to partly repay,
That infinite wisdom
your mentors convey.
Then keep me so longing
God's love to impart
To act without rancor
and live heart to heart.
For with all such bringing --
each student's bequest --
This campus is happy.
East Carolina is best.
--Dr. Keith D. Holmes Sr.
