About Mike
Mike Holloway was born in Greenwood, South Carolina. Summer trips to rural Alaska in 1961 and 1962 – begun as an adventure – led to his friendship with Johnny and Sarah Frank, and redirected his life.
As an undergraduate, Mike attended The Citadel, where he was a member of the Junior Sword Drill. After completing medical studies in South Carolina and interning in Virginia, he became a doctor with the Peace Corps and then for the Bristol Bay Native hospital in Alaska. He returned to the South to complete a residency in orthopedic surgery. In 1973 he joined the orthopedic staff of the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) in Anchorage. In 1977 Mike took a year and a half break from orthopedics and worked as a subsistence advocate and Washington D.C.-village liaison for the Alaska Rural Community Action Program. He then returned to work at ANMC, where he served some years as Chief of Orthopedics and received a number of awards for his service. In 2001, Mike was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, ending his work at ANMC. Feeling that he still had much to offer, he taught orthopedics through Health Volunteers Overseas. Mike is married to Margie Gibson. Their home on a mountain slope near Indian, Alaska is often visited by bears. |
|
Southern Roots
|
Mike's great-great great grandfather, Reuben Holloway, was born in Virginia around 1750, well before the Revolutionary War, and moved to South Carolina. The family story is that Reuben’s son, Levi, spent time in Florida with the Seminole Nation leader Osceola. Osceola’s mother was Mvskoke (Creek); they had fled Alabama for Florida, where displaced and local tribes combined to become the Seminole Nation. Forceful attempts to remove the Seminoles from Florida led to war. Osceola was treacherously seized during peace talks and imprisoned; Levi went to Fort Moultrie, near Charleston, to seek his release. Osceola died in prison several months later. Levi named one of his sons Osce and the name is still passed down in the family.
Mike’s great grandfather William Jordan Holloway was a teenage soldier in the Confederate Calvary and later attended the Medical College of Georgia in nearby Augusta. He was known as "Old Doctor” in family stories. He turned over his country medical practice to his son when “Dr. Willie”, Mike’s grandfather William Osce, completed medical training in Baltimore. Mike’s father, “Dr. Jordan”, was a WWII Navy combat surgeon on Iwo Jima, with the Fifth Division of the Marine Corps, before returning home to South Carolina. Mike and his two brothers were the fourth generation of Holloways to become medical doctors. |
Mike and a furry friend at home.
|
