| The Daily Times-Gazette (Oshawa) | March 17, 1951 |
Today the many friends of William Albert Holliday, 201 Byron Street North (Whitby) extend to him warm congratulations and best wishes. It is his 85th birthday.
For years, a well known merchant in Brooklin and then Whitby, Mr. Holliday has also continuously played an important part in community life. He is a Christian gentleman admired by all. Fortunately he has continued in good health with the exception of a little lameness in one foot and keeps active day after day.
Mr. Holliday's business career began in Brooklin when he was 20 years of age and his father was operator of a general store. Three years later the sudden death of his father, the late Daniel Holliday, left him in charge of this business which he continued with success for the next 23 years. From 1914 to 1926, he lived in Toronto, but then returned to Whitby to purchase a hardware business in which W. F. MacCarl was associated--the same store that is MacCarl's Hardware today.
Mr. Holliday has two children, Dorothy at home and Douglas, now in North Bay. Douglas had been assisting in the hardware business prior to his enlistment in 1940 and it was this fact, coupled with the realization he was near retirement age, which prompted Mr. Holliday to dispose of his business interests on February 1, 1941.
Though leading a busy business life, Mr. Holliday has had some time for limited participation in politics and public affairs. For one year he was president of the South Ontario Liberal Association. In Brooklin for ten years he was treasurer of the township of Whitby.
Outstanding have been his contributions to church affairs and temperance work. For 12 years he was superintendent of Brooklin Presbyterian Sunday School and held offices in other Christian groups. When the Brooklin Council of Royal Templars was organized in 1883, he was the youngest charter member and this connection has continued ever since in the Independent Order of Oddfellows which absorbed the Templars. After coming to Whitby he served in the United Church and has been a member of the Session.
Mr. Holliday's memory stands clear back to his first school days. He has favored the Times-Gazette with his interesting account: "My first school days were in the Dunbarton public school, 1874 to 1877 where the late J. Holmes was sole teacher for some 40 years. In the early months of 1878 studies were continued in the Brooklin Public School where the late John Clerk and A. G. Henderson were principals, with two assistant teachers.
"On September 2, 1878, a certificate of admission to the Whitby High School was obtained, this bearing the signature of the principal, the late George H. Robinson, M.A. This was followed by two more years of regular attendance at the Whitby School with daily round trips made by train or horse-drawn vehicles, in which the late Robert H. Walks and J. Frank Dale were daily companions. A three-month course in business college in Toronto, completed the actual period of schooling, but not of education, for there was much of this in the business and social contacts of 30 years in Brooklin, and in the church and Friendly Societies memberships. Coupled with this was studious reading of the daily newspaper and a moderate amount of educative literature in books and magazines and the influence and teaching of the Holy Bible. In the years in which there was official connection with the Brooklin Sunday School, at least two hours each week were devoted to study of the portion set for the following Sunday and the helpful comments of writers as published in the "Sunday School Times." This training continued to be a cultural and spiritual asset through the succeeding years."