Homer A. Holt

Who was Homer A. Holt?

Homer Adams Holt was a West Virginia lawyer and politician who served as that state's 20th governor from 1937 to 1941. Born in Lewisburg, West Virginia, he attended the Greenbrier Military School there and then went on to graduate from Washington and Lee University in 1918, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. After serving in the army during World War I, he returned to Washington and Lee in 1920 and studied law, receiving his degree in 1923. In 1924, he married Isabel Wood.

Holt taught law at Washington and Lee University School of Law for two years, and then practiced law in Fayetteville, West Virginia from 1925–1933. He was elected state attorney general in 1932, and served until becoming governor in 1937. After his term as governor he resumed his career as a lawyer.

Holt was a trustee of Washington and Lee University from 1940 to 1969, when he became a trustee emeritus.

Holt's grandfather Homer A. Holt was a lawyer and justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals; he died shortly before Holt's birth and Holt was presumably named in his honor.