Frederick William Holden

Obituary for Frederick (Fred) William Holden Frederick Holden, veteran of two branches of the United States military and two different wars, and a longtime administrator in the Washington Local School District in Toledo, Ohio, passed away at his home in Petersburg, MI, on May 4, 2020. He was 92 years old. Fred grew up in the Ohio towns of Pierpont and Conneaut, and left home at the age of 17 when he enlisted in the US Navy in the last year of World War II. He served on the USS Prentiss and the USS Shoshone, and was honorably discharged as a Seaman Second Class in 1946. In the years after the war, he worked on ore boats on the Great Lakes. He was drafted into the US Army in 1950, served as an artillery gunner on the Korean peninsula, and was honorably discharged as a Technical Sergeant in 1952. He was later classified as a disabled veteran due to injuries suffered in that campaign. For much of the 1950s, Fred alternated between attending college at Bowling Green State University, working on the lakes, and working in Colorado. In 1957 he met his wife-to-be, Carolyn Leake, in Bowling Green. He graduated from there with a B.S. in Geology in 1958 and was married later that year. In 1960, Holden began teaching at the junior high level in Washington Local Schools, and for one year in the Toledo Public Schools, after which he returned to Washington Local for the remainder of his career. He received his Masters Degree in Educational Administration in 1968 from BGSU and became the Associate Principal at Jefferson Junior High School. Fred was an avid hunter, as well as an accomplished amateur gunsmith and collector, and was a member of the Maumee Valley Gun Collectors Association and the Huron Gun Collectors. Fred also loved Model A Fords, including a 1929 two-door he fully restored, and was a member of the Western Lake Erie Region chapter of the Model A Restorers Club. He also farmed land his family still owns in Hillsdale County, MI. He and Carolyn enjoyed restoring a century-old house in Lenawee County, MI, and raising livestock. Fred Holden is survived by his wife of 62 years, Carolyn Holden, his sister, Frances Holden of Conneaut, OH, his three children, Craig Holden, Bethany Bigge, and Scott Holden, as well as four grandchildren, Alexander, Emmalyn, Stuart and Arabella, three step-grandchildren, Kevin, Becca and Sara, two great-grandchildren, Eleanor and Jameson, and one step-great-grandchild, MacKenzie. Services will be held in Conneaut, OH, at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC), the American Diabetes Association, or an organization of the donor’s choice.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Frederick William Holden, please visit our floral store.