Robert Holland
Class of 1972

Robert Holland graduated from Parker High School in 1972 and was inducted into the National Honor Society and Quill Scroll as a junior. He was elected vice president of his class, served on the student council and Valhalla staff, and was a member of Key Club and Lettermen’s Club. He was also a football, gymnastics, and track athlete.
Holland graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BS (1980), and from the University of Illinois-Chicago with an MA (1982) and Doctorate (1989) in philosophy.
Holland worked as a systems manager for a Chicago area research firm before returning to academia to finish his dissertation. The following year he began teaching philosophy at Hofstra University. His specific research interest is on the use of mathematics in the sciences—how mathematics is applied to the world around us. He earned tenure at Hofstra in 1995.
After 13 years, Dr. Holland left his academic post and currently is an author residing in Chicago. He has written two books that use old maps to document the history of a place—a type of cartographic history (an example of applied mathematics). His first book focuses on the city of Chicago, the second on the Mississippi River.
Since returning to Chicago, Dr. Holland has served on the Board of Governors of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and the Board of the Chicago Map Society, which is the nation’s oldest society devoted to cartographic scholarship. His latest role is Executive Director for a nonprofit organization that publishes the work of the American philosopher and mathematician Franklin Merrell-Wolff.