Don grew up in Topsfield, Massachusetts, a small town where the church on the green was Congregational, of course.   He remembers as a child the formation of the United Church of Christ and his church’s decision to affiliate.

He’s in the denomination today, a much-appreciated member of the choir at First Congregational in Houston.

After high school, Don “wanted to see the big city” and earned his undergrad degree in geology at Columbia University in New York.

Feeling “the draft breathing down my neck,” he enlisted for what turned out to be an unusual four years in the Army. At a Defense Department language school in Monterey, California, he learned Arabic.

In a Serbo-Croatian folk dance group at the school, he met Mary Bruen, a teacher from a nearby town. They married and moved to Washington, D.C. where he translated Arabic for the Army for three years. (Mary is also a member of First Congregational.)

He next earned a Masters in Geology at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.  Daughter Elizabeth was born there.

Don’s first job, in uranium exploration, took the family to Denver where son Bill soon arrived.  Mary’s mother lived nearby, so the kids got to grow up knowing their grandmother.  The family was active in Berkeley Congregational Church UCC. As a pastime, Don learned to play the recorder with a group of friends. This simple wind instrument popular in the Renaissance has become popular with amateur musicians in the 20th century.

In 1988, Don’s company moved his job to Dallas, and the family followed to become Texans. His new recorder group there tried singing some of their recorder music.  He decided he liked singing and joined a community chorus and eventually a church choir.  A highlight of his singing was performing Carmina Burana in the Meyerson Symphony Hall.

The kids were almost out of college when Don’s Dallas job ended, and in 1998 Don’s and Mary’s life in Houston began. This time, he found himself supporting exploration software, a job which allows him to work from home, which now is next door to their daughter, her husband, Omar, and two grandsons, Nikolas and Alexander, who recently moved to Houston from Puerto Rico.

Don and Mary joined First Congregational because they found it a very welcoming community that was mature enough to have embraced an open and affirming policy.  Besides joining the Meeting House Choir, he started a church recorder group which now includes two other choir members, Pat and Kip Murray.  The group’s big event is the Pilgrim Festival, but they also present pieces in worship services.

 “The choir is one of my favorite activities,” he says.” Another is growing tropical plants in Houston’s tropical climate.

Although they no longer have to travel to Puerto Rico to see family, other family members keep the Holloways on the move and welcoming company:  His recently married son, Bill and wife Abby live in New York City.  Mary’s daughter Liz and husband Steve and three grandkids are in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Don’s dad lives in Silver Spring, Maryland near two of his sisters, and there is more family in Wisconsin.  When they can, they visit a condo they kept in the Colorado.  “We lived there 14 years and miss the mountains,” says Don.