Annapolis Education Pioneer Electa Holland

Here it is past the middle of January and I’ve begun 2011 without faithfully writing thoughts and musings in my blog, but the recent death of Electa Holland, a fellow member of the 2lst century Club, has drawn me to my “blogging post”. I can’t let the week go by without writing down a few thoughts about why I will miss Electa.
I don’t claim to know Electa well, but had the opportunity to sit at her table at our monthly luncheon meetings, and she alays exuded a positive glow, particularly when talking about her two sons: Bryan and Wendall. Each month she would hand out flyers with announcements of where Wendall was next performing as an actor in local community theater productions. The rest of us might of had nothing to announce, but when it was Electa’s turn, she always had something to say about Wendall’s next performance and if she’d just seen him in a play, how wonderful it was.
Every Christmas we would all receive her Christmas newsletter with family updates and her calendar to keep us organized.
What everyone might not know is that despite her gracious demeanor, Electa was a pioneer forging the way for integration in Anne Arundel County public schools. A graduate of Hunter College in New York, she started her teaching career at the then segregated
Wiley H. Bates High School (now home to the Wiley H. Bates Heritage Center, Senior Center and the Girls and Boys Club of Annapolis). She then took a post at the newly integrated Germantown Elementary School in the 1960’s and became a strong force in the initial years of transition. She then went on to become the first black principal of Ferndale Elementary School.
She and her husband Henry of 53 years were active in many clubs and community groups, and after his death she continued to remain involved in many different groups including: Phi Delta Kappa Sorority, Church Women United, Anne Arundel Retired School Personnel’s “Voices of Melody,” and TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), Yes. Electa took her dieting and health seriously which is why she lived such a long and productive life. I will miss you Electa but the Greater Annapolis community is a better place as a result of your presence.