DAVID C. HOLLAND
1942-2021
After a long illness, David Chaison Holland, of Houston and Beaumont, died on Saturday, the 7th of August 2021. He was 78 years of age.
He was born in Houston on the 9th of September
1942, the son of Claude Elery and Eloise Chaison Holland, but had only been here a few months when his father went into the Navy and his mother moved in with her parents back in Beaumont, from where both sides of the family originated. David grew up there and went through the public schools.
In 1960, he graduated from Beaumont High, where he played drums in the Royal Purple Band and in classmate Johnny Winter’s pickup group. Then he went, without even considering any other place, to UT Austin, where he zeroed in on his career right away and earned a BBA in Accounting with highest honors; in fact, he was invited to teach there for a year after he graduated.
After getting a Master’s in Accounting from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, where in those pre-cyberworld days he and his Texas roommate drove around on back roads to try to pick up UT games on the radio, he came back to Austin to study law at
UT, where he got a J.D. with honors in 1968. Again he distinguished himself, this time by becoming Associate Editor of the Law Review and being invited to join a basket of honor societies, including the Order of the Coif. And he aced the CPA exam enough to get a national prize.
He came back to Houston after graduating and after a spell with Baker Botts formed his own practice in a small partnership, after which he went on alone to have a long and distinguished career as a tax attorney and estate planner. He was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at UofH for a year.
Outside the office and classroom, David never slowed down either. In his younger days, he won Sports Car Club of America races in two different classes, sedan in an Alfa Romeo Guilietta and what was then Formula S2 in a Lola 2000. He never entirely gave up being a gearhead and had his late-sixties MG stashed in a garage for a couple of decades.
David was a longtime member of the Golden Triangle Gun club and was an accomplished hunter. He enjoyed cooking and wine tasting, belonged to the International Wine and Food society, and was the designated chef and carver at a lot of turkey dinner holidays. He grew up with cameras by way of his shutterbug father, and loved taking pictures. He was good to the point that he was appreciated by professionals, some of whom became close friends. His burnt orange blood never faded and he was a fixture in his season ticket seats at Memorial Stadium. He logged more miles between Houston and Austin over the years than a lot of truck drivers.
He loved the outdoors and got out of the big city hassle as much as he could to go over to his double wide that he had installed on the family rice farm near Beaumont. He set that place up after Hurricane Ike wiped out the old Bolivar Peninsula cabin where he’d spent summers as a kid and happy times as a grownup. He loved travel, and had passport stamps from Europe, the Caribbean, Argentina, and South Africa, where he killed a cape buffalo.
His family are fondly thankful for the kindness he received in his last months from his caregivers LaDonna Williams and Amie Robinson. They also want to express their gratitude to DreamCare caregivers and Vantage Hospice.
In 2009, he married his loving wife Laura Cullinan Holland, who survives him. He also leaves behind his daughters from a previous marriage, Eloise Holland of Smyrna, Georgia, and Elizabeth Holland of Easthampton, Massachusetts, along with their children; his son,
David C. Holland Jr. of Austin; and his brother, James E. Holland, of Houston.
A celebration of his life is to be conducted at two o’clock in the afternoon on Friday, the 20th of August, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.
Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family and share memories during a reception in the adjacent grand foyer.
In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions be directed to the charity of one’s choice.
Please visit Mr. Holland’s online memorial tribute at GeoHlewis.com, where memories and words of comfort and condolence may be shared electronically with his family.