Happy Father's Day: Dr. V.M. Holland

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Salen Holland White expressed it so well, when she wrote of her father Samuel L. Holland
: "I just knew there was nothing Daddy did not know, nothing he could not do."
It was so true of you, too. Love you, Dad.

- Fred L. Holland

Robert H. Dennard: "Can you imagine that I used a slide rule to design my first memory chip? "

THE STORY OF ROBERT H. DENNARD
WRITTEN BY TERESA DENNARD and ROBERT H. DENNARD
EDITED WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL BY FRED HOLLAND.

With Parents Lois (Heath) and Bufford L.

Robert Dennard was born in Terrell, a small town in Texas in 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression to a loving family of very modest means, but great pride. By the time he was growing up, the family moved to a small farm in Clayton, a rural area in East Texas. They lived in a house that did not yet have electricity. His father farmed the fields and raised the livestock, while his mother kept them fed and provided with clean clothes. He started his education in a one room schoolhouse with three grades in different rows of desks. After a couple of years he moved to a little larger school where his fourth grade class was in the same room with a fifth grade class. Learning came easily to him, so he had a chance to hear what the higher grades were doing and advance at his own pace.

"In the class photo I am directly behind Jerri Rayburn, the smallest boy on the back row. I started school about the time of my sixth birthday (9/5/32), barely six years old, on the same day as Jerri who was my next door neighbor. There were three classes there, and I suspect this was my first year. I completed the three grades in two years and remained among the youngest and smallest all through high school. It came in handy having a bigger, older brother like James at times." 

Front row ??? in White Dress, Juanita Wedgeworth (now Clinton) in the middle and Jerri Rayburn (now ?) in the dark dress. Back row from left to right 1 ?, 2 ?, 3 ?, 4 ?, 5. Robert H. Dennard, 6 ? 
[I would appreciate help naming the rest of this group - fredddallas@gmail.com ]

His older sisters, Evangeline (Holland) and Jessie Jo (Wedgeworth) and brother, James (J.C.), had grown up and left home, but they visited frequently and provided great role-models. “I remember long summers with a lot of free time to think and entertain myself.” In the early 1940’s when World War II came, his father saw an opportunity to move the family to Irving, a small town just outside Dallas. Dennard now attended bigger schools and lived in a community where he could visit and interact with classmates. He also found the library and became an avid reader.

With Sisters, Evangeline (Holland) and Jessie Jo (Wedgeworth)

With siblings, Jessie Jo (Wedgeworth) and James (J.C.)

When his sister Evangeline went away to become an Army nurse, she left behind her collection of books and phonograph records. “I was totally impressed with a large red book which was an anthology of science fiction short stories,” recalls Dennard. “I read them all with pleasure, and I particularly enjoyed those by H.G. Wells which stimulated my young imagination and formed vivid images of strange worlds and people. I was very amused by a book of Ogden Nash poems that I read and memorized. There was also an album of Sigmund Romberg operettas that fascinated me. I sang along with them and also memorized the words and tunes. This most likely was the starting point for my love of choral singing and all forms of music.” While Dennard loved sports and played baseball and touch football with his friends, he was not big enough or fast enough to compete in high school team sports. Luckily in his sophomore year a high school band was started and he became a member, Playing French horn at first, he later switched to a bass horn that was needed in the marching band. As he was finishing high school, Dennard chose his future career as an electrical engineer with the help of a guidance counselor. “She advised me that electrical engineering was a fast-growing field and said it would be good for me because of my mathematics aptitude and my interest in science. I planned to go to a nearby state junior college along with many friends.”

In his band uniform  Southern Methodist University

One day something important happened that changed his life. The band director at Southern Methodist University in Dallas came to visit and offered Dennard a band scholarship to attend a much better school. His advice was “Why not take the best opportunity available to you?” “That was a striking idea to me that helped guide the rest of my life.” It helped him go on from SMU to Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, a top engineering school that is now Carnegie Mellon University. From there he did not hesitate when he got an opportunity to join IBM and its newly opened Thomas J. Watson Research Center.

IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

After a learning period in research, he felt very lucky to be involved in microelectronics in the middle of the 1960’s. Dennard’s primary work was in MOS (metal-oxide semiconductor) transistors and integrated digital circuits using them. In 1967 he invented the dynamic RAM (DRAM) memory cell used universally in computers today. With coworkers he developed the concept of MOS transistor scaling in 1972, which is often cited as a guiding principle for microelectronics. The simplicity, low cost and low power consumption of DRAM (dee-RAM) when combined with the first low-cost microprocessors, opened the door to small personal computers. Today, every PC, notebook computer, game console and other computing device is loaded with DRAM chips. Dr. Robert H. Dennard was appointed an IBM Fellow in 1979. He holds 65 U.S. patents and has published over 100 technical papers. He has received many honors including the National Medal of Technology from President Reagan in 1988 and induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2009 he was awarded the Charles Stark Draper Prize by the National Academy of Engineering and the IEEE Medal of Honor.

Wearing the Kyoto Prize Medal  for Advanced Technology

Most recently he has been awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology, which is equivalent to the Nobel Prize. Hear Dr. Dennard's presentation of the 2013 Kyoto Prize Commemorative Lecture

At age 82, Robert still goes in to work at the Research Center. He and his wife, Jane, live in New York and enjoy walking their two Scottish terriers in a beautiful park on the edge of the river in Croton-on-Hudson. They sing with the Taghkanic Chorale in Westchester County, a group that sings Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn pieces. The Dennards also enjoy Scottish Country Dancing every week at classes sponsored by Westchester Scottish Country Dance Society in Elmsford.

Dr. Robert Dennard wrote to his nieces and nephews that, “Jane and I could not believe that we had the dance floor with this wonderful large band pretty much all to ourselves." 
Don’t they look like the couple everyone hopes they will be as they grow old together? ---- Posted by Deborah McAlister on her blog Marketing Where Technology Intersects Life

Check out:

2013 Kyoto Prize Laureate: Dr. Robert Heath Dennard

Dr. Robert Heath Dennard invented the basic structure of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), which is now extensively utilized as one of integrated circuit (IC) memory systems. His innovation has immensely increased the capacity of digital information storage, leading to dramatic progress in information and telecommunications technology. Dr. Dennard and his colleagues also proposed guidelines, called “scaling theory”, to miniaturize field-effect transistors, which play key roles in most ICs, including DRAM, thereby promoting the amazing advance in IC technology.

My husband’s uncle Robert is a modest, unassuming man. He once explained to me that he didn’t really invent DRAM. “We just figured out the physics for something that already existed as part of the natural world, then engineered a way to put it to use,” he said as if that was somehow less impressive than “inventing” it.

When he and his wife Jane went to Japan to receive the prize, he didn’t talk much about the honor or the money (there’s a gold medal and 50 million yen – about half a million U.S. dollars — in prize money). Instead, he marvelled about being able to dance with his beautiful wife to the music of a wonderful orchestra, on a dance floor they had to themselves. He send his nieces and nephews photos of “Uncle Robert and Aunt Jane” dancing together. ... more click here.

Robert H. Dennard remarks...

 “I  often wake up in the middle of the night with a solution to a problem that I have been working on previously. Many inventors have described similar experiences to me, including getting out of bed to make notes or drawings before going back to sleep. Others have described significant inventions made while driving, which apparently leaves a lot of the mind free, at least before cell phones. My invention of the DRAM memory cell came early one evening after I came home stimulated and challenged from listening to a talk about a competing research project. The basic idea came in a moment, but there were a couple of months of perfecting it before the final simplification to a single transistor came in another flash of inspiration. At a National Inventors Hall of Fame event, while I was talking with four other inductees, I discovered that all five of us were raised in rural areas or small towns, and most started their education in one-room schoolhouses. We all were left on our own a lot with plenty of free time to develop our ideas about life. Now that may not be the key to our subsequent successes, but it surely is a counter argument to many of the things that are considered necessary for the younger generation today. I developed a very slow thinking process in my early days, and I believe that is why I am able to bring great concentration to a problem and engage my whole brain in finding a creative solution. ” ...

Check out: Dr. Robert H. Dennard, IBM Fellow, beside his drawing of a DRAM cell (circuit schematic)

“I am very proud to say that with many process improvements, structural innovations, and plain hard work, the thousands of people who make up this industry have been able to achieve in forty years a reduction in all dimensions of integrated circuits by a factor of about one hundred fifty, and more is still expected. The results of that, the ways that computers have advanced and changed our lives have been truly amazing." ...

 "Can you imagine that I used a slide rule to design my first memory chip? The point of bringing that up is to ask the question, what will the world be like in another forty years? This is the challenge and the opportunity for young people today who are just starting their careers. The questions there are not how far they can go, but how far should they go."

The Sentimentality of a Family Photo

I have shared this story with a lot of my close friends, but I am so proud of this story and Mother and Daddy wedding anniversary is coming up and I'd like to share it with you. Adam had an English assignment to write a paper on a picture at home that was sentimental to him, he chose this picture. Here is the story and the picture. Hope you enjoy.    ---
Deborah Gruver   "You Know You're From East Texas When ..." Facebook Group

The Sentimentality of a Photo
By Adam T. Gruver

Here, you see a colorful snapshot into the lives of a young boy and an older man. Their exchange of reverent smiles allows the viewers to assume these two people are well acquainted, maybe grandfather and grandson. The older gentleman holds the young boy up and looks into his eyes with a deep admiration. He uses both arms and the placement of his body to make sure the boy is safe and sturdy on the fence. The dog stands obediently at the man's feet, but pays no mind to the two main subjects of the photo or the camera person. His gaze and attention are fixated on some unknown element sitting outside the frame of vision. The landscape, although unfamiliar, is not seen well enough to make a fair supposition as to exactly where this photo was shot. However, an observer may be able to discern from the rust-covered, pipe fencing and the tattered corrugated-tin structure this photo was perhaps taken on an old farm or ranch. Being witness to sincere happiness makes it hard for an onlooker not to crack a smile. Without even knowing the people, a total stranger can appreciate the purity and simplicity caught in a moment such as this. The young boy has not yet lost his innocence, and the man is proud and willing to protect it.
I am the child in this photo, long since grown up and faced with many trials and tribulations of life. The older man is my grandfather. It has been little more than a decade since his passing, and almost as long since my two feet have touched the arid, sandy soil of that old ranch. In fact, after five generations, it is no longer in the possession of my family. In my candor I also, regretfully, admit I was too young, and this happy occasion in the shade of an old oak tree has faded from my memory. Regardless, when I glance at this picture, I am content. Although the circumstances surrounding this particular photo may elude the grasp of my mind, individual aspects bring forth a flood of mixed emotions. Studying it now allows past thought and feelings to break free from the far corners of my subconscious where they had once been lost. I remember the old feeding pen in the pasture of my boyhood home in Texas, and a delighted smile emerges on my face. Growing up as an only child on a 60-acre ranch, I found imaginative ways of entertaining myself. I explored every inch of those fields throughout my childhood, and played and climbed on the old rusty construct like it was a jungle gym. Also, unbeknownst to the audience of this photo, there is a pond in the distant background and beyond that, a creek where I visited frequently. I would wander forever, fishing and blackberry-picking my way along the banks until the sun went down. Along with playful memories of childhood, looking at me as such a youngling sparks reflection upon a much simpler time. A child, at that age, has no concept of responsibility, nor is his mind weighed down with the worries of adulthood. The only thoughts that occupied my mind were those involving toys, candy, and maybe what cartoon I should watch. Those were great times but such ease and joyfulness are typically short-lived. 
The photograph brings about some less cheerful recollections as well. It was right around this me that the Sharpei, (Char-Lee) had left his mark on me. The thoughts forth from this aspect of the picture are slightly more disconcerting. He was a great dog, loyal, and obedient to the tooth. Unfortunately, he wasn't the most patient. At 18 months old, I was an energetic child, (A nature that can be oppositional to that of impatience). I was playing on the floor in the kitchen while Cha-Lee was at his bowl eating. Naively, I crawled up and attempted to get him to participate; he wanted no part. Char-Lee let out a growl to warn me for being too rambunctious in his space. Not understanding, I slapped him across the jowls, and in an instant my face was torn open from the corner of my right eye to the right corner of my mouth. He knew instantly that he had made a terrible mistake, and I knew, even then, I was at fault. Bleeding and crying, I surprisingly attempted to protect my dog from my own mother. Some say that children cannot form memories until three or four years of age, but I beg to differ. These images are burned into my brain forever. Even though this is my most pronounced memory of Char-Lee, nostalgic warmth is still felt when looking at him in this photo. 
My grandfather, (or Pawpaw, as we say in the south) is the final component of this image, and like the memory of Char-Lee, his is a bittersweet sentiment. I was seven years old. I had arrived home from school and, as always, went to say hello to my granddad. I opened the door to his room, and there he lay on the floor next to his bed. He had had a stroke and was barely conscious. I called 911 and, although my Pawpaw survived this brush with death, over the New Year he was moved to a nursing home, his health slowly diminished, and 2001 he passed away. These thoughts are brought to mind when looking at the photo, but I still smile. Pawpaw, to me, was larger than life, and although tears fill my eyes as I write these words, they are there in happy remembrance of a great man. A photograph of a young boy with a dog and his grandfather seems plain enough, but, like most things, there is always more than meets the eye. It may be a depiction of a simple, happy event, but pictures can often bring a lot of feeling to the surface. Even though some experiences may be less pleasant than others, all that matters is how we choose to remember them.

Dr. V.M. Holland, M.D. : The Life of My Husband, an East Texas Country Doctor

Dr. V.M. Holland M.D.: The Life of My Husband,an East Texas Country Doctor,
 by Mrs. V.M. Holland, Evangeline Neal Dennard Holland, R.N., Captain US Army WWII
Trans-scripted letter posted by Fred L. Holland, entitled "Virgil M. Holland, V.M. Holland, M.D"., dated 4 March 1995


Virgil Holland was born in Fairplay, Panola County, Texas, on 4 March 1918. His parents were Lois Allison Holland of Fairplay, Texas and Mordie Holland of Benton County and Carol County, Tennessee. Virgil had one sister, Marguerite, and three Brothers, Samuel, Leland, and James (known as “Bill”) Holland. His Father was a farmer, rancher and carpenter. His mother was a homemaker. Both parents were life long community leaders in the Methodist Church, local schools, county fairs, soil conservation, home demonstrations, and youth socials and activities.

Virgil attended the rural school in Fairplay and graduated from from Carthage High School in 1934. Only 11 years of public schooling was required for graduation at that time, and he had been advanced two grades. He was valedictorian and only 15. After graduation, he enrolled in the Baptist College of Marshall in Marshall, Texas. His Uncle Sam Allison paid his tuition and book fees: he paid his room and board by waiting on tables and washing dishes in the college cafeteria, managed by Mrs.Fant, mother of the Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, Mr. Clyde E. Fant. [ Mayor Clyde Fant would be the guest speaker at the CHS graduation commencement of Virgil’s son, Frederick Leon Holland, in 1971.] According to Wikipedia,

Clyde Fant was a native of Linden in Cass County, Texas. He was one of six children of Mr. and Mrs. John Preston Fant. John Fant was a cotton gin owner and a onetime Texas state legislator. Fant graduated in 1925 from the former Marshall (Texas) College, now East Texas Baptist University. He taught school for a year in Blocker, a since abandoned community near Marshall, the seat of Harrison County. He then worked for a lumber company in east Texas and was thereafter associated with Southwestern Gas and Electric Company. He was an executive with Interstate Electric Company, with seven years of service with the firm, when he was transferred to Shreveport.]

Mrs. Fant was a lifelong friend and was admired and respected by her “helpers.”

Virgil was a “whiz” in math, chemistry, biology, physics, and history. This background provided good career choices and upon completion of enough hours for a teacher’s certificate and for graduation, he taught in the Fairplay School. He was a scholar, educator, hard worker, and teacher all of his adult life.

In May 1941, Virgil Mordie Holland joined the US Navy and served 4 years, 4 months, and 22 days. During those years of service, in Florida and California, and overseas on Guam and Australia, he was honorably discharged in 1945 as a Chief Pharmacist's Mate, (A.A.). It was during his WW II service that he decided his goal was to “ enter medical school after his discharge from the service, and to become a general practitioner (G.P.) of medicine after graduation and proper training.”

Virgil obtained a B.S. Degree through extra college work at Stephen F. Austin College, Nacogdoches, Texas. Graduating from there with honors, he was admitted to the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston, Texas without having to take an entrance exam in 1946. While there for four years of study, he worked at night for the Sisters of Charity and the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. During the Summer, he “externed” at the Memorial Hospital in Henderson, Texas, and the Marshall Hospital in Marshall, Texas. In school, he was a member of a fraternity, living in their house and enjoying all their activities. Virgil graduated from the University of Texas Medical School in June 1950. He was third in his class of 96 and was admitted into Alpha Omega Alpha, the National Honor Medical Society.

The Texas Board of Medical Examiners granted Virgil M. Holland, B.S., M.D., this license to practice medicine in Texas in July 1950. Before the examination, he had taken time to marry Evangeline Dennard, Carthage I.S.D. public school’s first and only school nurse from 1947 - 1951. The couple felt they were very fortunate to be able to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary together, before his death in 1990.

Dr. Holland interned at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Gregory, head of the Medical Department in the school wanted him to specialize in internal medicine and become an internal medical diagnostician. Dr. Holland was pleased to receive the offer, but he he felt it “would take too long and I wasn’t getting any younger.” He wanted to enter general practice, become a family physician, and fulfill his goal. He was a life [“Old Red”] member of the U.T. Galveston Medical School’s Alumni Association.

Upon completion of his John Sealy service, Dr. V.M. Holland had been offered a partnership to enter general practice at the Carthage Medical and Surgical Clinic in Carthage, Texas with Dr. Carl Prince and Dr. W.C. Smith: Mrs. V.M. Holland would continue to be the school nurse, but their plans had to change. Dr. W.C. Smith notified Dr. V.M. Holland that the partnership had an obligation to take back their partner, Dr. James M. Ashby, who was returning from the Korean War. The office space that was to be Dr. V.M. Holland would instead be returned to Dr. Ashby.

Dr. Lynn Hooker, whose clinic was also on West Panola, wanted Dr. V.M. Holland to join his clinical practice: but there was not enough room to set up an immediate practice there. This emergency need was taken care of by Dr. D. B. Daniel graciously offering to rent an office to Dr. Holland at the Panola Clinic on North Daniel Street for solo general practice. This help at this crucial time, after years of study and work, was always appreciated by both Dr. and Mrs. Holland in the years that followed.

However, Dr. Holland desired to enter a group practice, and soon he received an offer to join Dr. Coy Stone and Dr. Alfred “Al” Menson in Hobbs, New Mexico. It was too good an offer to turn down. Mr. Q. M. Martin, Superintendent of Carthage Independent School District, promised to release Evangeline, if she could talk Lou Tatum, R.N. into becoming the school nurse for Carthage I.S.D. The rest became history for Lou Tatum and school nursing in Panola County!

 (Hurray for Lou and Coach Tatum --- God Bless you! Always!)

-Evangeline, March 4, 1995


TO BE CONTINUED...

"GREAT UNCLE SAM ALLISON’S GARDENING AND SUCH"

Letter from Dr. Virgil M. Holland to his daughter, Mary, who has provided some editing additions for clarification. -- Dated July 29, 1982

Dear Mary,
That was an interesting article on the large Ginkgo tree on the old Sam Allison farm out in Fairplay, Texas. There were a few things that even my book did not mention. Sammie was a great one for plants of all types. In his best years, I can remember that he had an orchard with pecan trees, apples, cherries, and pears; in the plot across the road from his house on FM 159 from the Henderson Hwy, US 79, to the north (right) of the barn. In the corner of the garden next to the smokehouse he had raspberries of several different types and colors. It was my delight to pick these through the picket fence when I was about four.

In the chicken yard where the fig trees are now behind the house, there were two huge fig trees. The trees there now are only the remains of one of these large figs. In the turkey yard, he had three fig trees of the large variety. These never seemed to have ever amounted to much... even though one persisted around by the pear tree until a freeze a few years ago did it in...to the roots. Over to the right of the pear tree was an apple tree that ripened in June. It was the first fruit to be available. There were small apples, seldom ever as large as lemons, but they were the best tasting apples that I can remember.

Further back in the orchard proper that now has only three large pecan trees; he had a chinquapin tree, a “Japanese” walnut tree, several varieties of plum and at least a dozen or more peach trees. Among the peaches were the Indian peach for pickles, peaches which the meat adhered to the seed, and peaches of the “clear-seed” kind and several Alberta’s, which are now synonymous with modern day peaches. There were about four apple trees of a type he called “horse apples”. I never saw one ripen. They were fit only for apple cobblers and pies, of which he was very fond. They were also used to make jelly. [Mary’s addition: there were also Hachiya “Japanese” persimmon trees. These had seeds and needed to be fully ripen before eating or they would cause one’s mouth to “pucker”.]

The yard around the house was full of flowers [Mary’s addition from memory: daffodils, hyacinths, jonquils, wisteria, snowflakes, a tulip tree and a massive old Magnolia...to name a few] and there was a rose garden (heirloom varieties with trellises) over on the south side of the driveway, by the house. [Mary’s addition: a red crepe myrtle and pomegranate tree were nearby] I can remember Sunday afternoons when he had visitors from all around... that were flower people...that came only to wander through the yard and garden to see his flowers and see what new varieties he had added in previous Winter. These folks usually left with an arm full of cuttings or bulbs. Sammie, no doubt, spent some time admiring their flowers and brought home new varieties.

He always liked to try new flowers and trees as witness the Ginkgo tree and Tulip tree that still blooms. (Mary’s addition: Great Uncle Sam once had a beautiful Japanese red maple outside the kitchen window.] The Ginkgo tree made it under very adverse circumstances. For years, it seemed to have been a mere sprout of a tree. Diamond Pope’s kids all rode it down when they were left under the sycamores while Diamond was working in the field. Sammie would get on to Diamond for letting the kids ride his tree, then she would break switches by the armloads from the same tree to whip the misbehaving kids. (The tree’s ancient ancestors probably survived similar treatment by animals, dinosaurs and such!)

Sammie’s real love was flowers and he always carried bundles to the church every Sunday. He eventually had enough varieties planted to have material for bouquets at any season of the year. In his dotage he even carried this a bit too far...and would make special trips to town just to pass out flowers to people. He didn’t just bring flowers, but had to visit for a spell and give a bit of the history of every flower. (I suspect a lot of his flowers ended up in the waste basket when he was gone.)

He had some of the same interest in certain animals. Pigs were just for bacon and ham ...cows, milk...and horses just draft power.
Poultry was where he gave way to his interests...He always had turkeys as far back as I can remember. He did not like ducks or geese...or Guineas...they always were getting out and messing up his flowers. His chicken yard looked like a Babylon of varieties...He specialized in the bizarre. He had “frizzled” chickens with curled up feathers...”bunnie” chickens that had no tails...bantams, and various other varieties for color and size. He kept all of these together and every setting of eggs was always a surprise package!

Love, Dad

Dr. V.M. Holland and his wife Evangeline Dennard Holland lived at 422 West Panola Street in Carthage Texas

The Panola Watchman published this week a feature article "West Panola Home Witness to Carthage's Growth" by Rodger G. McLane, staff writer for The Panola Watchman/Longview News-Journal about their house that still exists on Panola Street in Carthage Texas: http://www.news-journal.com/panola/life/west-panola-home-witness-to-carthage-s-growth/article_8875518d-e0a5-5c77-80c5-4e624166818d.html

Eula Holmes Dennard, Mother of Evangeline Neal Dennard Holland, Wife of Dr. V.M. Holland

Eula Holmes Dennard

Birth: Dec. 22, 1896 Death: Jan. 26, 1919

Photo: After review this unmarked photo might be Eula with her mother Ada Costilla Drikell Holmes

If you have seen this photo before or have a copy of it and know who is in it, please leave a comment for me. FLH Editor

Spouse: Buford Leon Dennard

Parents: Henry Franklin Holmes (1868 - 1941) Ada Driskell Holmes (1873 - 1959)

Inscription reads: Wife of B.L. Dennard

Burial: Antioch Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery Carthage Panola County Texas, USA

Created by: EastTexan, on Find A Grave Memorial# 19760849