Lorraine Pierce Holowach

ONEONTA – Mrs. Nicholas L. Holowach, age 91, passed away Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown.

Mrs. Holowach was born March 18, 1920 in Oneonta, the daughter of Alpheus Babcock and Lottie (Bailey) Pierce. She was a direct descendant of Judge Jedediah Peck of Burlington and Richfield Springs, Revolutionary War soldier and the "Father of the Public School System of New York State".

She was educated in the Oneonta school system and was graduated from Hartwick College in 1943. Her postgraduate studies were done at the Maxwell School of Government at Syracuse University and Columbia University in New York City. She married Oneonta ophthalmologist Dr. Nicholas L. Holowach in 1944 in New York City when he was a freshman in medical school. Mrs. Holowach taught English and Social Studies at the Gilbertsville Central School, the Arlington High School in Poughkeepsie and the Sloatsburg High School in Sloatsburg, New York until 1951 when her husband was called to active duty with the United States Navy and assigned to the 130th Station Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany for a year. She was permitted to join her husband and she was given passage on a U.S. Military Transport ship in December 1950. Dr. and Mrs. Holowach returned to the United States the following year and lived in Portsmouth, Virginia where Dr. Holowach completed his second year of active duty at Portsmouth Naval Hospital.

Mrs. Holowach returned to Oneonta in 1953 when Dr. Holowach opened his medical practice. Mrs. Holowach was the Doctor's Office Manager from 1980 to 1994 after their children were grown.

She was a member of the First United Methodist Church, The D.A.R., the P.E.O. Sisterhood, the Oneonta Country Club, the Oneonta Women's Club, the Garden Club, the Hartwick College Citizen's Board and its first woman president, the Delaware County Conservation Association, the Preservation League of New York and a trustee of Senator Moynihan's Derrymore Foundation.

Dr. and Mrs. Holowach traveled extensively and for over 35 years had lived six months of the year near Pindars Corners in Delaware County.

She was predeceased by her husband of 59 years, Dr. Holowach, on February 23, 2004.

Mrs. Holowach is survived by a daughter, Dr. Lorraine (Dr. Jeffrey) Keller of Pipersville, Pennsylvania; a son, Nicholas Holowach, Esq. of Rockville, Maryland; grandchildren, Charles and Laura Keller; a brother, Leird (Jacqueline) Pierce of Oneonta; and a nephew, John (Cheryl) Pierce of Jones, Oklahoma.

The funeral service will be held 10 a.m., Saturday, May 7, 2011 at the First United Methodist Church, 66 Chestnut St., Oneonta, with the Rev. Edward Al Eastman, officiating.

Interment will follow at the Glenwood Cemetery.

There will be no calling hours.

Contributions may be made to the Glenwood Cemetery, PO Box 854, Oneonta, NY 13820.

Condolences may be sent to the family at, www.lhpfuneralhome.com

Arrangements are under the guidance of the Lewis, Hurley & Pietrobono Funeral Home, 51 Dietz St., Oneonta.