He recalled his father taking him on fishing trips from when he was five years old and he developed a love for the North Woods of Wisconsin.
During high school he worked 20 hours a week at the local cleaner and tailor shop, eventually saving enough money to pay for his first year at Northwestern University, where he was awarded a scholarship in chemistry.
[1][2] His interest in psychology came after serving as an anti-aircraft gunnery officer aboard the USS Iowa, where he observed first-hand the behavior of men under stress in life-threatening combat situations.
[2] After being discharged from active duty in 1946, Holtzman took a job at Northwestern University as a laboratory assistant while working on his master's degree, which he completed the following year.
He took a position as a teaching assistant under E. R. (Jack) Hilgard at Stanford University, where he received a Ph.D. in Psychology and Statistics in 1950 with a dissertation on the Rorschach technique.
[1][2] Holtzman began his career at the University of Texas at Austin in 1949 when he accepted an appointment as assistant professor in the psychology department.
[3] From 1950 to 1953 he taught extension courses in statistics and test theory at the School of Aviation Medicine in San Antonio, while also working as the primary research scientist on an Air Force contract developing new psychiatric screening instruments for the purpose of improving the selection of Air Force pilots.
The foundation had recently enlarged its research and publication program and Holtzman's new position allowed him to work on the development of a new personality test modelled after the Rorschach.