![](https://www.ashevillehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ron-holland-1-300x232.jpg)
2001
J. Ron Holland
Ron Holland served as the Manager of the Western Office of Archives & History for 23 years, assisting museums and historic sites from across a 23-county region. Holland retired in 2001, and he and other historians and organizations have been trying establish a regional history museum ever since. Such institutions, he maintains, are the best way to educate the masses, particularly students. He also served a president of the Western North Carolina Historical Association.