A 1939 graduate of Central, Richard attended UNO, majoring in chemistry; but he returned after his World War II service as an officer in the chemical corps to major in art and even surprised his mother by making the dean’s list. After graduation, he followed his father into the advertising firm that the elder Holland had founded. Richard built it into the company that would handle such accounts as the First National Bank, Uniroyal, Valmont Industries, and beyond those commercial ventures, a number of successful political campaigns. It wasn’t long until he discovered that his fortuitous investment with “the first person whose …ideas made sense” in a venture that was to become Berkshire Hathaway would enable him to pursue his and his wife’s philanthropic interests. The Holland Center for the Performing Arts is but one very noteworthy example of that generosity. Opera Omaha, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Child Saving Institute, the Winners Circle, Joslyn Art Museum, and the Omaha Symphony are just a few organizations that have benefited. Beyond Dick and Mary Holland’s generosity to the arts, a dominant giving goal has always been “to get a whole lot of people out of poverty.” That’s exactly what they have done.
Dick passed away in 2016 at the age of 95.