JACK WILSON HOLT JR.,
who served his state as chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and his nation in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve, earning the rank of colonel, died Sunday, March 5, at his home west of Little Rock. He was 93.
Jack came from a family of lawyers and judges, including two other Arkansas Supreme Court justices. The eldest of two children, he was born May 18, 1929, at Harrison to Jack Wilson Holt Sr. and Margaret Spikes Holt. His father was prosecuting attorney for the 14th Judicial District and later served as circuit judge. After the elder Holt was elected attorney general in 1936, the family moved to Little Rock.
Jack attended Little Rock public schools, although the family briefly moved to Louisiana after his eighth-grade year when the elder Holt, who had volunteered with the Army after Pearl Harbor, was assigned to a post in Louisiana.
When the family returned to Little Rock, Jack enrolled at Little Rock (now Central) High School, where he graduated. He received a law degree at the University of Arkansas School of Law at Fayetteville in 1952.
Jack joined the Air Force during the Korean War and concluded his career as an Air Force reservist with the rank of colonel. He returned from active duty just as his uncle J. Frank Holt was elected prosecuting attorney for the Sixth Judicial District. He followed his uncle to the Arkansas attorney general’s office after the election of 1960. He was chief assistant attorney general in December 1962, when his uncle resigned to be sworn in as a justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court – the seat once held by his cousin, J. Seaborn Holt. Gov. Orval Faubus appointed Jack to serve the remainder of his uncle’s term as attorney general.
Jack later joined the Little Rock firm of trial lawyers Gene Bailey, Walls Trimble and others, and quickly earned a reputation as one of the best criminal-defense lawyers in the state.
In 1966, while helping run his uncle Frank Holt’s campaign for governor, Jack befriended Bill Clinton, a college student who was a campaign driver for Frank Holt. Jack arranged for the young man to serve a Capitol Hill internship with Senator J. William Fulbright, helping to launch a political career that culminated in Mr. Clinton’s presidency.
Beginning in 1969, Jack and three other lawyers brought the landmark lawsuits against the Arkansas penitentiary that caused the entire state prison system to be declared unconstitutional, leading to widespread reforms in the treatment of prisoners.
In 1984, Jack ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination for chief justice and won the general election with 59 percent of the vote.
As chief justice, Jack transformed the Judicial Department into the Administrative Office of the Courts, providing education and other support services to all state and municipal courts. He worked for three amendments to the constitution that increased the civil jurisdiction of municipal courts to give litigants easy access to the court to resolve small monetary claims, created a system of juvenile courts and took juvenile matters away from county judges, and created a system for disciplining and removing judges for ethical misbehavior and for replacing judges who become physically or mentally disabled.
After retiring from the Supreme Court on January 1, 1995, Jack helped devise and campaigned for a constitutional amendment in 2000 that reformed and reorganized trial and appellate courts, prohibiting partisanship in seeking and holding judicial offices.
While proud of his professional accomplishments and his long service to state and country, Jack found even greater satisfaction in the countless relationships he enjoyed with family and friends from all walks of life.
No one was a stranger to Jack, at least not for long, and he would drop everything to help a friend – or a friend of a friend of a friend – a network which in his case seemed to include almost every Arkansan.
Jack loved the outdoors, whether hunting, fishing, admiring dogs, deer, and birds, sitting around swapping stories with old pals, or enjoying the farm he shared with his wife, artist Jane Dees Lovett Holt, whose portrait of Jack hangs in the Supreme Court building.
In addition to his parents, Jack was predeceased by a stepson, Jonathan Lovett; and a brotherin-law, Dr. Tom Freeman.
In addition to Jane Holt, his wife of 27 years, survivors include two daughters, Kelley Holt and Candace Holt Chappell (David); a stepson, Forest Lovett (Leslie); a sister, Peggy Holt Freeman; grandchildren Andrew England, Avery England, Carson Chappell, Holt Chappell, and Mary Sophia Lovett; nephews Tom Freeman (Dawn) and Rob Freeman (Nancy); and many other members of a big, loving family.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Arkansas Bar Foundation, designated to the Justices Frank and Jack Holt Scholarship Fund, 2224 Cottondale Lane, Little Rock, Ark. 72202; or the Arkansas Sheriff’s Youth Ranches, www.youthranches.com.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, March 25, 2023, at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock, with the Rev. Mary Vano officiating. A reception will follow at Morrison Hall. Burial will be private. Arrangements are under the direction of Ruebel Funeral Home, www.ruebelfuneralhome.com.