Celebrating Dr. Albert D. Holland

“I can’t think of a more proper time to use the term Living Legend than in describing Dr. Holland,” Councilor Worrell stated, while thanking Dr. Albert D. Holland for a career of “stepping up” for the Boston Public Schools (BPS).

On Thursday, September 5, the Jeremiah E. Burke High School will be renamed the Dr. Albert D. Holland High School of Technology.

Dr. Holland was born and raised in Roxbury, in the Camden Street Housing Projects. Attending Timilty Middle School and Jamaica Plain High School during the height of the country’s civil rights movement, Dr. Holland learned at an early age the importance of community. In 1975, Dr. Holland was serving as one of the first Black administrators at South Boston High School when the City began the desegregation of BPS. In 1982, Dr. Holland took over as Headmaster of the then-struggling Burke School. During his decade plus of leadership, the Burke transformed into a jewel for the City of Boston. Following his tenure at the Burke, Dr. Holland served in various leadership positions within BPS, including as an executive administrative assistant to the Superintendent, overseeing BPS Pilot Schools, BPS High School Superintendent, and Headmaster at Health Careers Academy.

In the years since his retirement, Dr. Holland continued to deliver for the students of Boston, including guiding Madison Park out of a crisis in 2014, and helping to improve the racial climate at Boston Latin School in 2016. Through nearly a half century of leadership, Dr. Holland’s dedication, guidance, mentorship, and connections have impacted generations of students, and helped shape the entire Boston Public Schools district.

Dr. Holland was presented with a resolution from the Council, to applause from an audience including the Superintendent, Chair of the School Committee, BPS Staff, and members of the community. Dr. Holland gave thanks to his family and extended family of community, his mentors and distinguished community icons Rev. Dr. Michael E. Haynes and Clarence Jeep Jones, his colleagues, and his former students “who believed in me as I believed in them”. Dr. Holland shared, “This journey has been wonderful and I’m so proud to be a product of the Boston Public Schools.”