Good Bye My Friend! We Are All Better For Knowing John Holm

He was dedicated, he was reliable, he was driven to work hard, he was always on time and he was my friend.  John Holm passed away Monday night at the age of 84 losing his battle with cancer.

I met John and his lovely bride Patricia back in 1978 when I first came to Quincy.  We both worked at WTAD Radio.  He was my go to guy to find out how things worked at my new place of employment. It was a comfort to me to know I could go to John with my questions and he was always kind enough to give me his time.

As time progressed, I moved up the management chain and unfortunately had to follow corporate orders to reduce the staff and John was on the list to be furloughed.  I couldn’t tell him at work so I asked him to meet me at Washington Park which he did. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my career, to tell a good friend that he was losing his job. When I told him that day was his last day after years of employment there, he thanked me and said he had to get back to the studio to air the 4pm local newscast. I told him we would cover it for him but he would have no part of that. If that day was his last day he was going to work his hours to the end which he did. That was John Holm.

I told him that day that if I ever had the chance to bring him back to WTAD I would do so. I eventually left the station, but returned two years later as the General Manager as was reunited with John again.  John worked some 42 years at WTAD until August of last year when his health began to fail. My thanks go to current General Manager Mike Moyers for continuing to find a way to keep John on the air after my departure from WTAD.

John’s work was his life. Aside from following the Chicago Cubs and tinkering with model railroads, radio was everything to John and he was the consummate professional. John will be missed by many but especially on the time change days when he would “officially” update everyone’s time pieces.

I could relay story after story about John, but it is suffice to say that if you knew John at all you knew a wonderfully dedicated man. We are running out of people like John. We all could use a John Holm in our life.  I, for one, am glad he was in mine.