William J. Holmes (1970-1993)

Portrait of William J. Holmes, 1985.

William J. Holmes, Jr., 1927-2014, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1945 to 1949. In 1951, he received his B.A. from the State University of Iowa, where he became an instructor of English in 1955. In 1958, he joined the faculty at the University of Ohio at Athens, recieving his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from his alma mater in 1962. At the University of Ohio at Athens, he became the Assistant to the President and became the fourth President of Simmons College in 1970.

During his presidency, Holmes remained steadfast in his devotion to women's education and the goals envisioned by John Simmons almost 100 years earlier. He maintained Simmons College as a women-centered undergraduate program, even as the College's coeducational graduate programs expanded. Furthermore, he enhanced educational opportunities for all women by supporting the growth of the Dix Scholars program for women of nontraditional college age. Under Holmes, the mission of Simmons College remained constant: 

Simmons College prepares its students for meaningful and rewarding personal, professional, and community lives ... Our core undergraduate mission, to educate women, is accomplished by integrating the professions and the liberal arts and sciences... The College's historical committment to excellence in educating professionals extends to its graduate schools and programs, which are open to both men and women... Throughout all of its programs, Simmons is committed to providing students from a diversity of ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds with the practical and intellectual means to use their skills and knowledge as scholars and future leaders in their professions and as citizens of an ever-changing world.