GRAD CHECK
Tom Van Holt
Year: 1985
Hometown: Rochester,
N.Y.
Degree: Political Science
Back in the day: After two years at Alleghey College in Meadville, Penn, Tom Van Holt took a year off to bike across the United States. He was so impressed by Kansans and their way of life that he transferred to the University of Kansas for his last two years of school. While at the University he served as a Resident Assistant in McCollum Hall, where he started a book-exchange program to help students avoid bookstore "rip-offs," but the local bookstore shut him down, he says.
The grad life: Van Holt turned down a chance to work with the KU citymanagementprogrambecause he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. Instead, he set off to find his way. Van Holt lived in California with his family, traveled to India, attended the University of Oregon, worked in Alaskan fisheries, worked as the director of Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall at the University, taught English
in Thailand and joined the Army Special Forces during the Gulf War
In 1995, he was trimming trees, moving furniture and doing other odd jobs in Lawrence between his travels. Moving was the most lucrative, he says, so he started Starving Artists Moving, 945 Illinois St. The name wasn't a gimmick, he says — he and his friends were actually poor and many of them were artists. The same year his first book, Alaska Passage, was published. In 1999, he wrote his second book, Stargazing: What to Look for in the Night Sky.
Today: On Dec. 26, 2004, Van Holt was snorkeling 40 miles off
the shore of Thailand when the Asian tsunami hit. The tsunami lasted two-and-a-half hours and threatened the lives of members of his snorkeling group. When he returned to Lawrence, Van Holt started a relief fund to help victims of the tsunami and he has been back to Thailand four times since then to help.
Van Holt has visited more than 20 foreign countries, and with approximately three months of the year off and a better-than-average salary, he continues to travel and take on service projects like helping victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He has pledged all of the growth in his business to charity.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM VAN HOLT Tom Van Holt, second from right, poses with fellow tsunami survivors.
He says: Van Holt says he's always loved Kansas, ever since he biked through the state over 20 years ago. Although he doesn't agree with the state's politics, he says Kansas isn't inferior to the coasts like a lot of people think."Life is easy in Kansas," he says. People here can make a living without constantly scrambling to get by, it's less crowded and it's a great place to work on his books, he says. He is now writing a book on his experience surviving the tsunami in Thailand.
Anne Weltmer
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