Carl Holvick

The late Carl Holvick, a native of Brainerd, Minn., recently of Palo Alto, Calif., has been named posthumous recipient of the Centurion Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2003.

Holvick was one of the oldest living alumni of the college when he died in July. Members of his family will lead the parade as “Parade Grand Marshal” for the NDSCS Centennial Year Homecoming in his honor.

This special award, presented by the NDSCS Alumni/Foundation during the NDSCS Homecoming Awards Banquet, is based on professional ideals which exemplify commitment to excellence; one who has been recognized for local achievement in business; one who has expanded the frontiers of enterprise and one who has shown charitable interest in others.

Holvick graduated from high school in Brainerd and was very active in Boy Scouts, achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. Following graduation from high school he enrolled at North Dakota State College of Science (NDSSS at that time) in drafting and math. He went on to the University of Minnesota where he earned a degree in architecture and also a degree in structural engineering.

Jobs were hard to get when he graduated, he related, and he was able to talk his way into working for Morris Ring of Morris Ring Construction Co. in Minneapolis, receiving no pay, only experience. While with this company, he learned the process of estimating costs and bidding jobs. With this new addition to his resume, he was able to get a job with the Haglin Company. He traveled throughout the East and Midwest estimating costs of projects and supervising construction.

One job took him to the Minneapolis airport to present the plans for bidding a job there. A long line of men in the airport aroused his curiosity, and when he inquired about what was going on, he was told it was lawyers applying for a commission in the Navy. While he was talking to the men, a young naval officer approached him and suggested he come with him to the head of the line where he received a very speedy physical. He informed the doctor he was color-blind, but the doctor produced two flags, one red and one blue, and asked him to identify them by color. When he properly identified the colors, his physical was finished, and he passed.

Three months later while he was on the job in Kentucky, he received a letter signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and addressed to Lt. JG Carl Holvick with orders to report for duty and a physical. Again he told the doctor he was color-blind and said, “I suppose that eliminates me.” “Oh no,” said the doctor, “you are already in the Navy, and you can’t get out.” He spent the greater part of World War II at the Kaneohe Airbase in Hawaii, which needed to be enlarged from a 2,000-man base to a 20,000-man base. Holvick was now doing what he really enjoyed doing — construction.

He advanced to the grade of lt. commander and was assigned to Washington, D.C., and later transferred to Seattle, Wash., to be stationed at Sand Point Naval Air Station on Lake Washington for the remainder of his Navy career.

Holvick met and married Patricia Houck on June 30, 1946, in Seattle and they moved to California. He established a business with his wife’s cousin called CarlRay Company in San Carlos and later formed his own business, the Carl Holvick Company. He developed a new concept in construction — pre-formed concrete, walls poured on a flat base and after curing, raised by crane and connected to the foundation. This new concept in concrete building allowed him to build rapidly. At the height of the California boom from 1950 to 1980, Holvick’s company built a phenomenal 50 to 60 structures a year. During Holvick’s career he built over 2,500 buildings in California, Oregon and Hawaii.

He continued to work at his life’s passion, drawing plans and building in Palo Alto until he became ill this past summer. He had hoped to design and build a fancy high-rise for senior citizens in the near future.

The Holvicks had been married for 56 years. They have three daughters and six grandchildren. He continued to share his pleasant memories of NDSCS with his wife and family, and frequently contacted the Alumni/Foundation to keep up with what was going on at the campus until his death.