J.H. Holland; Ambassador to Sweden in ‘70s

Jerome H. Holland, a university president, former ambassador to Sweden and the first black member of the board of the New York Stock Exchange, died Sunday of cancer. He was 69.

Holland, who died at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, was named ambassador to Sweden by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970. He served until 1972 when he joined the exchange’s board. Earlier he had been president of Hampton Institute in Hampton, Va., from 1960 to 1970 and president of Delaware State College in Dover, Del., from 1953 to 1960.

A native of Auburn, N.Y., Holland was one of 13 children whose father eked out a living as a gardener and handyman. He began working for his father as a boy and later said it became obvious to him that the only way out of poverty was education.

Holland earned a bachelor’s degree in 1939 and a master’s in science in 1941 from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in 1950 from the University of Pennsylvania.

At Cornell he was a two-year All-American football end.

Holland was also a business consultant and a member of the boards of several Fortune 500 corporations in the industrial, retail, communications, financial and insurance fields.

He was a former vice chairman of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and a life member of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

He was chairman of the board of governors of the American Red Cross and a member of the board of directors of the National Urban League and the United Negro College Fund.