Former Virginia Governor A. Linwood Holton Jr., and father of George Mason University’s former interim president, Anne Holton, passed away Thursday evening. He was 98.
“Governor Holton was a giant in Virginia politics and here at George Mason,” said President Gregory Washington. “With a stroke of a pen, he gave this great university its start and his leadership began a legacy of diversity and inclusion that has been and will always be central to Mason’s mission.”
Holton, who in 1972 signed the legislation that granted Mason its independence from the University of Virginia, played a leading role in integrating Virginia schools and increasing the number of women and African Americans employed in state government. He also created Virginia’s Governor’s Schools Program.
Holton is credited for embracing desegregation at the height of the busing controversy more than a half century ago. Enrolling his children into predominately Black schools, Holton will be remembered for helping Virginia take a step away from its segregationist past as he walked his daughter Tayloe into John F. Kennedy High School.
“As a student, I remember doing all the normal things a student would do, but with an extra sense of purpose,” former President Holton, who would go on to be one of Virginia’s Secretary of Education, said in a previous interview. “It was the first time I can remember being a part of something bigger than myself, and the experience helped make me the person I am today.”
In addition to giving Mason its independence from the University of Virginia, Gov. Holton was also responsible for providing early funding that would contribute to Mason’s growth.
Holton received the Mason Medal 2010, honoring his outstanding community service. The university named a Fairfax Campus plaza in Holton’s honor in 2016 and has established the A. Linwood Holton Jr. Leadership Scholarship for students with excellent academic credentials who have overcome barriers to academic success, demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities or have helped others overcome discrimination in any facet of life.
The Holton family released a statement yesterday, remembering their father’s impact on their family and the commonwealth.
“To the world, Governor Linwood Holton is known as a giant of civil rights and change. When others stood in the doorways of schools to block de-segregation, our Dad walked us (and bused us) to integrated schools to show the rest of the world the way of justice," the statement said. "…But to us he was simply a great Dad—a hero who helped us with our math homework, told us funny stories, and showed us the way to live committed to what is right."
“Governor Holton lived out his beliefs in an unprecedented manner,” said President Washington. “His commitment to civil rights and inclusion and his courage to take a stand in the face of adversity created a legacy that Mason honors and strives to follow.”
