William Curry Holden

During World War I, Holden served in the Eighty-sixth United States Army Infantry at San Antonio.

[1] After his military service, Holden obtained a job as principal at his alma mater, Rotan High School.

In 1955, Holden, J. Evetts Haley, and other historians organized the Southwest Collection and Archives, which contained West Texas ranch records.

In 1933, 1935, and 1937, he and his students excavated and restored the Early Glaze-period Arrowhead Ruin east of Santa Fe, New Mexico, including a rare D-shaped kiva.

Holden's most significant archeological discovery occurred in 1937, when two of his students found a Paleo-Indian flint point in Yellow House Draw.

Holden played a major role in the long struggle to preserve the site,[2] which was finally in 1989 designated the Lubbock Lake National Historic and State Archeological Landmark.

During his retirement, he and Frances built the Adobe Row neighborhood of houses in Lubbock, Pueblo-revival style, to serve as inexpensive accommodations for faculty and students at Texas Tech.

William and Frances Holden are interred in the family plot with his parents and first wife at the City of Lubbock Cemetery.