Family and friends of Leslie A. Holmes

Leslie Holmes was born in Freeport, IL. He earned teaching and travel research fellowships from the University of Illinois and directed geological research in the southwest for the Skelly and Texas Oil companies. During the depression, he became a geography and geology teacher at a community high school in Chicago, IL. Holmes was NIU’s 5th president and during his term Northern experienced phenomenal physical growth and developed several new administrative and academic programs. Student enrollment soared as land acquisitions and building construction increased. He retired from the presidency in 1967 and became a visiting professor at Arizona State University.