James Lee Holdaway

James Lee Holdaway April 13, 1927 – January 17, 2018James Holdaway (aka JL) was born in Mouth of Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia to Walter Holdaway and Margaret Greer Holdaway, their oldest son, of six children. He was born during the Depression, a very hard time for their mountain community. He developed scurvy at one point and had to have oranges shipped in to the local store especially to treat him. He worked hard to help support his family throughout his childhood, on his grandfather’s farm in the grain fields and gardens, trapping and skinning animals for their pelts, and selling newspapers along with other odd jobs. Jim tried to enlist in the Navy before he was 17, was turned down, but then successfully enlisted when he turned 17. He served in the Pacific Theater after training in Norfolk, Virginia and San Diego, California. He was stationed aboard a Landing Ship-Tank (LST) in several capacities but was officially a pharmacist’s mate. He participated in the landings at the fierce battles of Saipan and Okinawa. He always retained an ear drum injury from this time. After returning home from the Pacific in 1945, he remained at the San Diego naval base until his discharge in 1947. After his service, Jim attended Bluefield College and the University of Richmond graduating with a chemistry degree in 1951. He always worked hard during college to survive and continue his studies – working in construction, road-building, and even driving a hearse during the horrible polio epidemic of Wytheville, Virginia. After graduating, he worked as a chemist in Radford and Fredericksburg, Virginia, taught school in Norfolk, and taught chemistry at Bluefield College for three years. He attended graduate school at the University of Tennessee, and took a job finally as a chemical analyst in Richmond, where he met Janice Coffey in 1956. They married in 1957 and lived in Richmond where Jim worked as a chemist for the Department of Public Works water division and Janice as a nurse. Jim and Janice had four children, Robin, Kevin, Andrew, and Jonathan. In 1964 the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. He took a Federal position as a chemist at the Taft Engineering Center, of which he was very fond, in looking back. In 1967, the family moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where Jim worked for the Department of the Interior, Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, and then on to Atlanta, Georgia, where he worked for the newly-created Environmental Protection Agency. He especially enjoyed conducting environmental inspections at military bases. Jim attained the position of Chief of the hazardous waste section. He retired from EPA in 1989. Jim was a renaissance man. Over the years he loved jazz music, Shakespeare, reading, ham radio, and photography. He also was very active in several Baptist churches, teaching Sunday-School and serving as a deacon. His dear first wife, Janice, passed away in 2004. He cared for her during a difficult ending. He took a supportive interest in his grandchildren, attending their weddings and graduations. Jim married again in 2009, to Lorese Frasier. She saw him through to the end of his life and has been a devoted and caring wife. James Lee Holdaway is survived by his wife, Lorese , his children: Robin Levenstein and her husband, David, their four children, Risa Wright and her husband Tom and their four daughters, Anna Carr and her husband Nathaniel and their two sons, Joshua Levenstein, and Rebecca Levenstein; Kevin Holdaway and his wife, Josie, and their 3 children, Owen Holdaway and his wife Maggie and his two children, Hailey Holdaway and her partner John Hendry, and Nathan Holdaway and his wife Anela; Andrew Holdaway preceded James in death in 2017, and is survived by his wife, Marcia Noguiera, and his two sons, Jacob and Drew; and Jonathan Holdaway and his wife Sharyn. Jim is the last of his brothers and sisters to pass away. James Holdaway believed in hard work, the pursuit of knowledge, and the importance of family. He will be missed.Read Obituary