Victor “Vic” Holden, Jr., 92, passed away on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021. The family will receive visitors from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 at Meadows Funeral Home. A memorial service will follow at noon.
“Vic”, as he was known to his family and friends, was a stoic man of exceptional fairness and honor. Born April 12, 1929, “The year that the Great Depression began!” he would often say, followed quickly by the wry disclaimer “But it wasn’t my fault!”
After graduating from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, he applied to the Navy OCS, and subsequently served as a Special Agent Encryption Officer in the Korean war. He spent much of the 1950’s at sea, sharing the time patrolling the waters of the Mediterranean ocean and the Sea of Japan.
Near the end of his duty with the US Navy, Vic fell in love with and married his dance instructor from the Arthur Murray School of Dance where he was engaged in lessons. He began the next chapter of his life, serving as a patriarch, a role model, an inspiration to nearly everyone that encountered him. He was a husband of nearly 50 years at his love’s passing in 2005. While Vic never re-married, he was able find a way to stay connected with his departed by rekindling his affinity for dance, being driven to participate by his loving daughters.
Pursuing careers after the US Navy took him from milk man in Denver, to an Appliance Salesman in a Massachusetts Sears & Roebuck, Human Resources in a Connecticut Hospital, and he finally found a calling in Personnel Management where he could combine his incredible aptitude for applying fairness, with his innate ability to connect with and genuinely care for people.
In 1973, his professional journey led him to the small town of Monroe, Georgia, and a vitreous china manufacturing
facility where he served as the Personnel Director. Once there, he found the community warm, and firmly rooted in only the best traditions of southern honor and hospitality. For the next four decades most of his free time was spent as a volunteer in various civic duties with a desire to help maintain and build the spirit of the community that had welcomed him so warmly, and which he cherished so dearly. Some of his more noteworthy accomplishments
and affiliations were as the Chairman of the local Red Cross chapter, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Walton County Hospital Board of Directors, and a member of; American Legion Post 64, VFW Post 4421, Kiwanis International, President of the Rotary Club of Monroe,
In 2009, tragedy struck Vic and his family, when his grandson, 1st Lt. Joseph D. Helton, a Security Forces Officer in the US Air Force and also a life-long resident of Monroe, was killed in action while serving in
Baghdad, also striving to help a community by training its local police forces.
Vic enjoyed playing golf, and held a lifetime membership at Monroe Golf and Country Club. He was an avid proponent for exercise and healthy living, with few rivals in his dedication to either, and he continued to pursue them both right up until the very end.
He is Forever an Inspiration.
He was preceded in death by his parents Victor and Myra Holden, his wife Jeanne Earley Holden, his grandson Joseph D. Helton, and his brother Frank B. Holden. He is survived by his children Howard Johnson, Lee
Blinson, Linda Harvey, Jennifer Helton Sarver, and Victor Holden III; grandchildren Scott Johnson, Chris Johnson, Seth Burrow, Levi Blinson, Jonathan Hall, Jeannie Rhea-McManus, Jessica Helton, Jordanne Cary, Victor Holden IV, Brittany Holden, Elyse Holden, Macy Jepsen, Marina O’Connell, Calista Holden, and Austin Holden; great grandchildren Amber Johnson, Lila Burrow, Evie Burrow, Holden Burrow, Natalie Rice,Alan Hall, Joseph McManus, Trip McManus, Adelaide McManus, Lowen McManus,Noah Cary, Owen Cary, Jonah Cary, Claire Cary, Alexia Holden, Orion Holden, Trystin Cottrell, Clementine Cottrell, Beckham Cotrell, Ender Cottrell, Jovie Cottrell, Lennox Glawson, Oliver Caples, Olivia Caples, and soon arriving Wren Jepsen; great-great grandson Kacy; daughter in-law Janis Holden; son in-law David Sarver; grandson in-laws Ronald McManus, Austin Cabot, Stephen Cary, and Connor Jepsen, granddaughter in-laws Jana Blinson and Jennifer Hall.
Lt. Helton Memorial Foundation, Inc
Jennifer Helton Sarver
Director
770-722-1878
ltheltonfoundation.org
Life’s a journey, not a race.
Reposted courtesy of Meadows Funeral Home.
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