Alvin J. Holloway, S.J., an associate professor of philosophy, died Tuesday, Feb. 24 at Our Lady of Wisdom Healthcare Center from complications involving diabetes and vascular disease. He was 77.
Holloway was a graduate of St. John High School in Shreveport. After graduating, he entered the Society of Jesus and received his B.A. at Spring Hill College.
Holloway also studied at St. Mary’s College and St. Louis University, and then Fordham University, where he earned a Ph.D.
He taught at Loyola for 42 years, where he was also the chairman of the Department of Philosophy from 1967 to 1998, and as Dean of the Summer Sessions from 1967
to 1970.
The Rev. Stephen Rowntree, S.J., a friend of Holloway’s for more than 30 years, said that “he was a superb chair of the philosophy department,” and that “he really looked after the faculty members and tried to really help us do well,…and he was a very fine teacher.”
Rowntree explained that Holloway “was the chair when the transition was made from pretty-much an all-Jesuit philosophy department to one incorporating lay people.”
Holloway also served on numerous committees, including the Institutional Review Board (for research on human subjects) and the Premedical Advisory Board.
“He knew a lot about the working of the university,” Rowntree said.
His original interest was in Medieval Philosophy with a specialization in late Ancient and early Medieval thought, especially in the thought of Augustine and Aquinas. In later years, his teaching interests included Ancient (Greek and Roman) Philosophy, Medieval Philosoph, and Ethics, especially Biomedical Ethics. His latest philosophical research included St. Augustine’s teachings on marriage, physician-assisted suicide and the cloning of human beings. Prior to his death, he was working on a book entitled “The Transformation of Stoic Themes in the Writings of St. Augustine of Hippo.”
Holloway is survived by his cousin, a former president of Loyola University and current physics professor, the Rev. James C. Carter, S.J. A funeral Mass was said at the Most Holy Name of Jesus Church on Friday, Feb. 27.
