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Letter to the editor

1953: Dixie Hollins and son, a team in full stride

By THERESA BLACKWELL, Times Staff Writer
Published November 18, 2007

"My son," says Dixie M. Hollins, "inherits many characteristics from his mother's side of the family. His forebears were prosperous Kentucky farmers. If you dropped any one of them in the wilderness with nothing but an ax, they'd soon have a log cabin home and land cleared for farming. My ancestors preferred to sit around in the shade and think things out. Their patron saint was the man who invented compound interest."

Whatever the truth of that statement, the characteristics of the father and son have combined well in business. Dixie Hollins is president of the St. Petersburg Printing Company, the firm he took over in 1932 after it had failed. His son, Maurice, is secretary. The elder Hollins is also president of the Pasadena Golf Course Corporation and his son is vice president. At Harbond Inc., the corporation that owns the Montgomery-Ward Building and Hollins Wood Ranch, Maurice is president and general manager of the ranch and Dixie is secretary.

Hollins bought the 20,000-acre ranch in Citrus County in 1942. He describes it as "a hunters' and fishers' paradise." He and his family can be found in a cottage on Crystal River there most any weekend.

Pinellas County can be grateful to Dixie Hollins for the part he played in building the school system that we have today. Appointed school superintendent in 1912, the year the county was created by separation from Hillsborough, he served nine years. Before that, he had been principal of the grade schools and high schools in Clearwater for four years, after coming to Florida in 1908 from Bowling Green, Ky.

Appointed for a one-year term, "because no one else wanted it," he found the schools run down through the county's neglect. In 1913, he succeeded in putting a bill through the Legislature permitting school districts to issue bonds. Before he was through, he had built new school buildings in every district and one of the finest school systems in the state.

It was the experience gained in issuing school bonds that led to what Hollins regards as "the greatest single accomplishment of my life." That was the refunding of more than $30-million in Pinellas County bonds after the big bust of 1929, and reducing the size of St. Petersburg's debt from $27-million to $18-million.

Because Hollins had contacts and experience in the bond business, he was made chairman of the committee of 37 leading citizens appointed by Mayor Henry Adams to make a study of the debt.

"I was in my prime then and I loved it," Hollins admits.

Maurice L. Hollins was born in Clearwater in 1912, graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1934 and immediately came to St. Petersburg to join his father in business.

Dixie, by an accident of fate, was born in Texas, although his parents hailed from Kentucky. It was in Kentucky that he spent most of his childhood, before graduating from the Bowling Green Business University and Normal School in 1908.

"Having lived in Pinellas County for 45 years and seen it grow from a backwoods Florida county to almost a solid city," Hollins commented, "I cannot but be optimistic about its continued growth and development."

Nov. 22, 1950

Nick Billiris honored on his 16th birthday

TARPON SPRINGS - Mr. and Mrs. Mike Billiris entertained at their home Sunday night with a birthday party honoring their son, Nick, on his 16th birthday.

The table was centered with a birthday cake representing a football field with a game in progress, complete with field goals, players and football in miniature. Nick is the center on the Tarpon Springs High football team.

Looking back

Headlines through the years

A look back at the events, people and places that made North Pinellas the unique place that it is. The information is compiled from past editions of the St. Petersburg Times.

[Last modified November 17, 2007, 20:44:58]