Obituary: retired Judge Dixon W. Holman

Dixon W. Holman had dual passions: the law, which led him to a career that culminated in 23 years on a state appeals court, and football, where he was an on-field official at all levels, culminating in the National Football League.

Along the way, he also served in the state House and on the Arlington City Council.

“He and his family have contributed to Arlington and have been instrumental community leaders throughout the years,” Mayor Jeff Williams said Wednesday.

Former Mayor Richard Greene said Holman’s integrity “made him the consummate jurist and a role model for public servants everywhere.”

“I so admired his unselfish attention to the needs of our city during his time as a member of the City Council that I made a practice of following his example,” Greene said.

Judge Holman died Saturday of cancer. He was 81.

He was a sixth-generation Texan whose great-great-grandfather, according to information provided by the family, was James S. Holman, elected the first mayor of Houston in 1837.

He was born Oct. 17, 1933, in Harlingen. When he was 5, Judge Holman’s family moved to Fort Worth. He graduated from Paschal High School and later from the University of Texas at Austin. At age 23, before he graduated from the UT Law School, he was elected a state representative. He graduated in 1958, the year he married Sharon Green and began law practice with the Simon and Ratliff law firm in downtown Fort Worth.

Judge Holman became general counsel for Great Southern Insurance and Allied Finance Co. in Dallas in 1960, prompting him to move his family to Arlington, which became his last hometown, his family said.

Judge Holman quickly immersed himself in the community, serving as chairman of Arlington Planning and Zoning Commission and being elected to three two-year terms on the City Council, starting in 1977. He also served as chairman of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and as vice president of the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

In 1981, Gov. Bill Clements appointed him to the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth to fill a vacancy. But the next year, before the Reagan Revolution had run many Democrats out of Tarrant County, Judge Holman was defeated in his bid for election to a six-year term. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush nominated him to serve as a U.S. district judge, but he suffered a mild heart attack and withdrew himself from consideration.

In 1991, he was named chief of the Tarrant County district attorney’s civil division, then he served as counsel to a law firm. In 1995, Gov. George W. Bush gave Holman his second chance at the 2nd Court of Appeals, appointing him to fill another vacancy.

He was elected in 1996 and again in 2002, said Clarissa Hodges, general counsel to the appellate court, who called Judge Holman “a true gentleman.”

He retired in 2008, after establishing a reputation as a hardworking, productive jurist who helped implement more efficient processes in the court. Judge Holman was always among the first on the seven-member court to finish writing his case opinions for the year, said Fort Worth attorney John Cayce Jr., former chief justice of the court.

“And he was always, without exception, respectful to everyone, in and out of the courtroom … from the janitor on up,” Cayce said. “I know it sounds like a cliche, but he was a judge’s judge.”

He was 75 when he retired from the court on Dec. 31, 2008.

His alter ego was football referee, an outdoor judge. He briefly played football as a walk-on at UT Austin in the early ’50s. But it wasn’t until he was 36 that he began officiating at elementary, junior high and high school games. Then he was off to college for an officiating career that included working in six bowl games.

He was president of the Southwest Football Officials Association, and from 1972 through 1983, he wrote, illustrated and published Dixon Holman’s Football Referee’s Handbook.

He became one of the original instant-replay officials for the National Football League, where he spent two seasons working regular-season and playoff games before hanging up his whistle, said his son, Dixon R. Holman, also a former Arlington councilman.

In addition to his wife and son, survivors include a daughter, Mary Claire Sullivan of Fort Worth; and six grandchildren.

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Obituary: retired Judge Dixon W. Holman."