Frank Holland, ardent supporter of vets in Marion County, dies at 80
Frank Holland, an Ocala native who was part of U.S. naval history and an ardent supporter of veterans, died early Friday of congestive heart failure. He was 80.
Holland served aboard the USS Nautilus, the nation's first nuclear-powered submarine and the first ship to cross under the North Pole in 1958.
He was an engineering technician aboard the ship and much of the work he did was shrouded in secrecy.
He joined the Navy soon after graduating from high school in Jacksonville.
“His friend had a girlfriend on the draft board and she found out they were about to be called up, so they went to Gainesville and joined the Navy before they could be drafted,” said Karen Holland, one of three daughters of Frank and Annette Holland.
Frank Holland had joined the submarine reserves while in high school at the behest of an Navy officer.
“He worked as a soda jerk at a soda shop and this one Navy officer would come in every Thursday for a chocolate shake,” Karen Holland said. “He encouraged him to join the reserves.”
Holland retired from the Navy in 1969 and moved back to Ocala.
He joined Central Florida Community College, where he taught radiation health technology, preparing students for work at nuclear power plants. He taught for 13 years.
One of his classes was enlisted to help after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, where the reactor suffered a partial meltdown.
“They went up there in the first few weeks after it happened. They helped take samples measuring the radiation,” Annette Holland said.
Holland also brought in a working, teaching reactor that was housed at the school for a while.
“They were scared to death of it so they never let him use it,” she said.
He retired from the school in 1982 and spent the next 12 years in Cary, N.C., working at a commercial nuclear power plant.
He retired again and moved to Belleview, but his heart was always in Ocala.
“He loved Ocala. Whereever he was, home was always Ocala,” Annette Holland said.
Frank Holland was involved in all aspects of veteran issues in Marion County.
He was part of the Marion County Veterans Council and commander of the area's United States Submarine Veterans Inc.
He was preparing for a USSVI ceremony on April 30, which will include a “tolling of bells” ceremony, where a bell is sounded in honor of each submarine lost at sea.
Holland also had built a large-scale replica of the nuclear-powered USS Nautilus, which will be part of the program.
“He was a gentleman and a very knowledgeable man,” said Bill Hauck, president of the Marion County Veterans Council.
“He was always the first guy to step up when anyone needed anything,” Hauck said. “He never wanted to be out front. He liked working behind the scenes and organizing.”
Holland is survived by his wife, Annette; daughters, Patricia Kalarovich of Wheatland, Iowa; Laura Alley of Goldsboro, N.C.; and Karen Holland of Belleview; and four grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at Grace Episcopal Church at 11 a.m. Thursday. A military graveside service will also be held at Woodlawn Cemetery in Ocala following the church service.