He is best known for his work on major water supply projects for the city of Tulsa, and on the Pensacola Dam at Grand Lake o' the Cherokees.
He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1916 with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering and married Frances Hope Kerr on July 28, 1916.
[2] Civic leaders had long realized that the Arkansas River was an unreliable source for Tulsa's water supply.
One study concluded that Spavinaw Creek could provide ample water that could flow by gravity at least as far as Catoosa, Oklahoma.
[5] They had decided to build a reservoir on Spavinaw Creek, a tributary of the Neosho River, over fifty miles northeast of Tulsa.
He is credited with designing a 55-mile-long (89 km) pipeline that could carry water to Lake Yahola in Tulsa using a gravity flow system alone.
While Holway was assembling a 40-man team to oversee the Spavinaw project, three representatives of the Klan confronted him to demand that he fire three Roman Catholics.
Knowing the Klan's reputation for violence, he thereafter kept a loaded weapon handy, even strapping it to the steering wheel of his car.
[7] The Spavinaw system exceeded the original design requirements, which called for meeting Tulsa's water needs for 25 years.
William Nye "Bill" Holway (1920–2007) succeeded his father as president of the consulting firm, which later was acquired by The Benham Group of Oklahoma City.
[10] Frances Hope Kerr Holway (1886 - 1968) worked in her husband's engineering firm, becoming a full partner who was responsible for personnel and office management.
She was also a published author, whose works included: Early Teachers of the South and West, 1820-1865, (2 volumes), The Story of Water, The Holway-Kerr Family Book, Radicals of Yesterday, and History of All Souls Unitarian Church of Tulsa: 1921-1971.
Her papers are in the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University.
[10][15] W. R. Holway's grandson, Bill Hamilton-Holway, is co-minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley with his wife, Barbara.