Leslie A. Holmes Papers, 1938-1967

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Born in Freeport, Illinois, Leslie Holmes earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois. Between 1928 and 1931 Holmes received teaching and travel research fellowships from the University and directed geological research in the southwest for the Skelly and Texas Oil companies. During the Depression he became a geography and geology teacher at a community high school in Chicago, Illinois. In 1936 Holmes left Chicago to join the geography staff at the Illinois State University in Normal and in 1943 became assistant to the president. Six years later the Northern Illinois State Teachers College in DeKalb appointed Holmes its fifth president. During Holmes' term as president, Northern experienced phenomenal physical growth and developed several new administrative and academic programs. Student enrollment soared as land acquisitions and building construction increased. The introduction of advanced degrees at the masters and doctoral levels promoted Northern to university status in 1957. Northern also acquired the Lorado Taft Campus in 1951, a sixty acre tract of land in Oregon, Illinois, to increase the size and scope of the Outdoor Education Department. In a period of eighteen years the Holmes Administration provided first rate educational facilities for Northern's students. Leslie A. Holmes retired from the presidency at NIU on August 31, 1967; he became a visiting professor at Arizona State University. Holmes died in Tempe, Arizona on August 21, 1974.