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A Life Too Soon Ended,
Yet Long Enough To Do Good

By Don Rojas
NUL Commissioners

A poet once said that the test of a man is the fight he makes and the grit that he daily shows. By this reasoning, then, his 15 years on the civil rights battlefield fighting for human decency and equality while stoically bearing the pains of nagging ailments, beyond doubt qualifies Adolph Holmes for a pass with honors.

Born in Winfield, La., 55 years ago, of modest origins, Holmes grew up on Leavenworth, Kansas where he attended public school and from where he left to join the army at age 16.

Twenty one years later, then a retired major and married one year, he launched into a hungry pursuit of a college education and in three years won his bachelors degree from Hofstra University.

Then one summer day in 1960, Holmes, brimming with confidence from his new credentials, walked into the New York Urban League's offices seeking a job. Alexander J. Allen, NUL Deputy Executive Director for Administrative and Public Affairs, then a personnel man, interviewed Holmes. He recalls:

"I was very impressed by the way he presented himself. He was business-like, pragmatic and disciplined. He conceptualised like an army man which, undoubtedly, was a result of his army conditioning."

Holmes subsequently joined the staff of the Essex County Urban League where he spent two years as assistant to the executive director. He joined the National Urban League in 1962 and quickly worked his way up the ladder to become, ten years later, deputy executive director for Program and Field Operations.

[[image - black and white photograph of two men shaking hands, behind them is a sign reading "URBAN LEAGUE"]]