Visitation will be 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, followed by a service at 1:30 pm on Monday, February 13, 2023 at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, 1701 East Millbrook Road, Raleigh, NC 27609. The service will be immediately followed by a burial service at Raleigh Memorial Park, 7501 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, 27612.
Stuart Boyce Holoman, son of Boyce and Lillian Holoman, was born in Raleigh,North Carolina on December 9, 1942. Stuart is not just the rare native North Carolinian, he’s a native Raleighite. A clarinetist from an early age, he graduated from the Broughton High Symphonic Band to the NCSU Symphonic Band, where he was music librarian, obtaining a BS and MS degree in Electrical Engineering just to keep playing in the band. Interspersed in those years he was a top-40 DJ spinning rock and roll 45s at WKIX, WSHE, and WSSB. A charter member of the Raleigh Concert Band as a clarinetist, he began his association with Cary Town Band in the early 1990s also playing clarinet. He continued as Director and Conductor for Cary Town Band and became Director Emeritus in late 2022 returning to his first love of playing clarinet and performing with the band through the end of 2022.
Serving at sea as an officer in the US Navy, he formed the folk group Wind Jammers, picking up a cheap guitar in Italy to accompany the group. This led to work with various folk and bluegrass groups in New Jersey while a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories and studying mathematics and protocol theory at Stevens Institute of Technology. On the side, he designed electronic phone systems and communications networks while writing folk, country, and rock music for his band, Procyon, playing that Yamaha 12-string, and singing in Denver area bars with Jack Ray.
After returning to the Research Triangle as Director of Computing Technology with Nortel (where a remarkable similarity to Kermit the Frog was noted), he formed Holocon, Inc. – Computication Consulting, specializing in whatever looked interesting at the time. This included announcing Great Classical Music at the fledgling WCPE, eventually becoming Program and Operations Director for a few years before taking off to travel around the world consulting on, writing about, and teaching computer auditing and security to Fortune 1000 companies – or whoever would listen.
Wherever he was, music was an important part of his life. His wife Elizabeth, a Neonatal Practitioner at area hospitals, plays flute, piccolo, clarinet, and violin. Holocon, Inc endows a chair for Elizabeth with the Durham Medical Orchestra. Three grown daughters have all had musical bouts with clarinet, flute, and one still sings in Wilmington. Everywhere you turn, there’s music. Stuart spent the last several years of his life composing and arranging pieces for symphonic band. Many pieces were performed by the Cary Town Band and these compositions can be found online.
He is preceded in death by his parents Boyce and Lillian D. Holoman, his sister Dorothy H. Evans. He is survived by his loving wife of 29 years, Elizabeth Holoman, three daughters Kristine H. Clements (Ralph Clements), Patricia Holoman, Megan H. Smith (Kevin Smith), grandchildren Steven Clements, Sarah Clements, Jillian Smith, Jenna Smith.
Memorial Contributions may be made to the Cary Town Band, c/o Cary Arts Center, 101 Dry Avenue, Cary, NC 27511.
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