James H. Holly

James Henry Holly passed away peacefully on February 7, 2016 after a brief illness. He was born in Clinton, Massachusetts on February 21, 1938 to James Henry Holly and Mary Agnes (O'Toole) Holly. He was raised and educated in Worcester, Mass, graduating from Worcester North High School in 1956. He earned a Bachelor's degree with honors from Holy Cross College in 1960 and immediately entered the U.S. Navy as a commissioned officer. He served as a Lieutenant and was honorably discharged in July of 1962. After spending a year working in Connecticut as a buyer for United Technologies he entered Harvard Business School, earning his MBA in 1965.

Following graduation from Harvard, he joined American Express in New York City where he participated in the launch of new credit cards and embarked upon a career developing and marketing credit instruments and data systems. While in New York, he met Judith Barr and they were married in June of 1967. Jim ultimately left American Express and joined Credit Data Corporation, where he managed East Coast operations. When TRW acquired Credit Data in the early 1970s he moved to Southern California where he helped manage TRW's business and consumer credit operations, leading to innovations in data acquisition, storage and retrieval as well as marketing of credit information.

Jim left TRW in the 1980s to direct a new venture formed by Times Mirror Corporation to explore ways of presenting consumer data and commercial information by television and telephone. Always eager to own and manage his own company, he purchased Database Publishing from Times Mirror and built it into a regional publisher and distributor of industrial, technology and service business directories in the western United States. He helped pioneer the merger of digital databases and computer based retrieval systems for use by businesses, libraries, and researchers. He sold the company in the early 2000s and entered into an active retirement of travel, investment, golf, and service.

He was a member of the Holy Cross College Alumni Association, Harvard Club, and Rolling Hills Country Club. In recent years, he served as a docent at the World War II era Battleship USS Iowa and could be seen driving around the peninsula with Judy in his red Austin Healy. He had a passion for people, leaning, and spending time with his grandkids.

Married for 48 years, he is survived by his wife Judith Barr Holly, daughter Meredith Holly Edwards (Blake) and two grandchildren, Hayden and Piper Edwards. In addition, he is survived by his brother, Brian Holly (Audrey), sisters Suellen Beeman (Richard) and Kathleen Villemure, and nephew Eric Goldsmith (Angelina).

A funeral mass will be celebrated at St. John Fisher Church on Friday, February 19, at 1:30pm. Burial will follow at Green Hills Memorial Park, Rancho Palos Verdes. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to either Pacific Battleship Center, 250 South Harbor Blvd., San Pedro, CA 90731, Attn: Nui Valletta or Peninsula Committee Children's Hospital (befitting Children's Hospital of LA) P.O. Box 801 Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274.


Funeral Home:
Green Hills Mortuary and Memorial Chapel
27501 S.Western Ave.
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
US 90275