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April 01, 2009
Holden H. Oliver (1968-2009)
WAC? co-writer, former reporter and third-year law student Holden Oliver died Tuesday in Palo Alto at Stanford University Medical Center. A Boston native, and from a family that has lived in eastern Massachusetts for nearly 380 years, Holden graduated with a degree in English (highest honors) from Williams College in 1990. A former reporter for the Kansas City Star in its Washington, D.C. office, he also worked for ten years in the London and Frankfurt bureaus of the New York Times. Holden entered Stanford Law School in 2006, and joined WAC? "out of boredom" while still a student in early 2007. Last year, he was elected to the Managing Board of the Stanford Law Review, and worked in July in Hull McGuire's Pittsburgh office. His death was the result of a kiln explosion in which his ex-girlfriend, a Stanford undergraduate co-ed half his age, was apparently not injured in any respect. If you wish to help us honor Holden's life, his sarcastic uber-WASP prose style, his support of the profession's growing value movement, and his energetic if, frankly, amoral lifestyle, donations can be made in his name to the Nantucket Preservation Trust, the Cosmos Club or Kelly's Irish Times in Washington, D.C.
Posted by JD Hull at April 1, 2009 06:49 AM
Comments
As someone who has died several times; - perfecting the art of resurrection without involving the mumbo jumbo men and other assorted religious nutters -I always appreciate a good death.
It is always sad to hear of talent being cut off in the prime of life - and one day this may well happen to Geeklawyer if the apparatus of state manages to catch up with him.
I never had the opportunity of meeting Holden Oliver, but I feel sure, had I done so, that I would have persuaded him, despite his relative youth, to take up drinking professionally.
In these dark and difficult days only the sober die young. Had I been there to advise, lend such wisdom as life has given me... who knows.. he may well have lived to continue to promote the cause of blogging, immaculate conception and immaculate client service.
My fellow blogger Geeklawyer cannot, sadly, be here tonight to give this valedictory address with me from across the pond, but I have spoken to him from the Police custody suite in London (a small matter of rioting at the G20 summit) and he would like to express his best wishes for Holden's future in the afterlife.
I am, of course, prepared to waive my usual fee for ferrying Holden across the Styx... on this occasion... as a remark of the respect I have for WAC? / WAP?
I'm ready with my boat whenever you are, Holden.
Posted by: Charonqc at April 2, 2009 06:08 PM
Holden seems to die with some frequency. I trust he is getting better at it.
Posted by: John Day at April 1, 2009 08:58 AM
BFD. I mean, really, it's not like that lazy wart did much of anything. Plus, he was ugly and dressed funny, which is why he was still a virgin dating sexually ambiguous teeny-boppers. And dumb as grass, given how he screwed up by trusting you.
Still, I will toast his memory later this evening in honor of his one good line, "it's not over until we say it's over."
Posted by: shg at April 1, 2009 07:38 AM
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