James Holahan, the founding editor of this magazine, died at the age of 94 on July 4 at home in Saddle River, N.J., with his family by his side.

Holahan, “Jim” to those who knew him, retired from AIN in 1998 at the age of 77, conceding his long career to macular degeneration. Although his eyesight was failing, his vision had lost none of its acuity, and it’s entirely possible he would otherwise have remained in the editor’s chair here until just a few years ago.

The man had a passion for this magazine surpassed only by his love for family, whom he often spoke of during off times at work. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Madaline; five children, James, Elayne, Phillip, Sharon and Paul; 12 grand-children; and three great-grandchildren.

Jim grew up in Jersey City, N.J., and commuted across the Hudson River to school in Manhattan, but it was perhaps his time in the single seats of Air Corps P-38 Lightning fighters during World War II and Lockheed F-80 jet fighters in the Korean War that shaped the scrappy tenacity that would mark his subsequent career as an editor and journalist.

AINer Mark Phelps remembers a conversation with Jim about his wartime flying. “Jim wanted to be a fighter pilot, but his lanky frame sent him down another path and he was assigned to the twin-engine, bomber/transport track. He became a B-25 Mitchell pilot, but he still wanted to fly fighters. By chance, he and another B-25 pilot happened to meet up with a pair of P-38 pilots who seemed to think the B-25 was the bee’s knees. Somehow, Jim and his buddy managed to cut through the red tape to effect a swap, and they switched to P-38s.

“I asked Jim where he served during the war. He swept his arm in mock self-importance and proclaimed in his signature baritone, ‘I served, with honor, in the CBI Theater…’ Not the better known China-Burma-India ‘Hump’ though. Jim continued, ‘…that’s Coffeeville-Bartlesville-Iowa City. We bravely kept Kansas, Oklahoma and the Hawkeye State safe and secure for the duration.’”

As early publishing colleague Bob Hoffman wrote in May 1994 on the occasion of Jim’s induction into the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame, “Jim Holahan might have chosen to do something different with his life. He might have become an airline pilot or an electronics technician or a college teacher. But he chose aviation journalism, and the profession is far better for it. Those of us fortunate enough to have worked for him are also better for it–better writers, better thinkers and better people. Holahan believed in journalism the way a philosopher believes in ontology–truth is the only reality, and the truth will never let you down. Lesser people than Jim Holahan did let him down, or spurned his quaint ideas of what the responsibility of an editor should be. But those who followed his simple dictum–report the facts, write well, be fair and above all don’t be afraid of the powers that be–found out that simple honesty and strict professionalism would reward their lives in ways undreamed of. And those who worked under Jim and followed his rules knew that when adversity was set upon them, Holahan would be there to defend them with his honor, his friendship and–if need be–his very job.”

In 1970, after coming to blows over corporate muzzling of the magazine’s editorial voice, Holahan left his job as editor-in-chief of Business and Commercial Aviation, a post he had held for eight years in the early development of business aviation. Out of work, Jim tried his hand at freelancing briefly, and then joined Wilson Leach and Hoffman in the Aviation Consumer and became editor of the advertising-free magazine. It was Jim’s idea to start a new publication, NBAA Convention News, a daily newspaper first published at the 1972 NBAA Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. From those roots grew the 20 titles in the AIN Publications stable today.

Jim never used his knowledge as a platform for boasting. Instead, he shared it with his colleagues at AIN and with his readers simply as a tool for the thorough analysis of news, products and developments in business aviation.

By the mid-1990s, Holahan and Leach had built a company that had grown from a faint blip on big media’s radar to a clear threat. On a number of occasions in the three years between my joining the magazine in 1995 and Jim’s retirement, I remember hearing AIN’s receptionist tell Jim that the head of a certain large aerospace publishing house was on the phone asking for him. Not once did Jim take the call, and I suspect it gave him quiet pleasure to snub overtures by the organization that had steamrollered his editorial integrity a couple of dozen years earlier.

An editor as tenacious as Holahan tends to make few genuinely close friends in the industry he chronicles. Many people in business aviation respected Jim’s integrity even if they didn’t always like what he wrote. The litmus test for whether or not we pursue a news story at AIN remains the same today as when Jim was the editor: Is it important for our core readers to know the fuller story behind the headline?

The intertropical convergence zone where media meets industry is “the PR guy,” who conducts his professional life wedged uncomfortably between the editor’s quest for more information (providing free but possibly less than glowing publicity) and his employer’s desire to keep a tight lid on everything but the bland and self-aggrandizing.

Leo Knaapen, who occupied that turbulent region for Bombardier, wrote this tribute to Jim:

“Jim’s departure reminds one that age has little to do with ability. At age 51–when many of us are starting to think about retirement–Jim started Aviation International News and made damn sure, in his oh-so-stubborn way, that it was always crammed with news. And more news. And so AIN earned its stripes as the journal of record for our industry, still its hallmark 43 years after he and Wilson gave it legs.

“Journo snob appeal, with Jim? No such thing. Jim was armed with a lifetime of aviation experience, insight and intuition but he never let all that knowledge turn him into a snob. Au contraire, he had a fire in his belly to find out what the other guy knew. Always.

“Of course, lining up against Jim had its challenging and sometimes edgy moments–his on-deadline requests on late afternoons flood to mind, and his frequent scoops had me dancing on coals with my execs. But as a writer and an editor, he was fair to Bombardier and to me. Fondly, I also recall our lighter moments–Singapore Slings at Raffles, chopper flying over the Hoover Dam, discovering the Air Force Officers Club in old Dubai. And, of course, sharing stories about Jim’s beloved Jersey Shore, where he probably still patrols the surf.”

On a personal note: I look back on that Friday afternoon in the summer of 1995 when you flew down to Princeton Airport in your 150 to chat. At 5:50 p.m. in a nothing-fancy Jersey diner, we shook hands and I joined the staff of your magazine. Thank you, Jim. May you rest in peace, forever free from deadlines, midnight oil and the turbulence of the intertropical convergence zone.

A Tribute from Wilson S. Leach

Jim Holahan was my close friend for 47 years and business partner for 27 years. Even though Jim retired from AIN in 1998, he continued to live in New Jersey, so I was fortunate to be able to stay in touch with him and his family, but in particular with his wife of 67 years, Madaline. Jim was in failing health for the past year and we knew his time was approaching; still, I was not fully prepared for the strong feelings I have experienced since his death on July 4, 2015.

Jim was a special person in the truest sense of the word. As you will see in other pieces we have written on Jim, including the one by Nigel Moll in this issue, all the people who worked closely with Jim realized that he possessed a special set of principles and had a special way of getting the job done. In Jim’s case, the job was writing fact-filled news and information on what he loved best: business aviation around the world.

Jim was legendary as a tireless worker. Most people don’t realize Jim was already 51 years old when we started AIN back in September 1972. He worked well into his late 70s and would not have retired had it not been for failing eyesight that hindered his ability to edit our publications in the manner and style–and to the high level of quality–to which our loyal AIN readers had become accustomed. And throughout those 27 years, not one time did I ever see a younger staff member, including myself, physically outwork Jim.

His first soirée post-AIN-retirement was to become the president of the Saddle River (New Jersey) Board of Education. After Jim’s funeral mass on July 11–where I gave a eulogy–I was stopped in the parking lot by a gentleman who wanted to talk about Jim. It turns out he was the superintendent of the Saddle River School system when Jim was president, and I had to physically excuse myself 25 minutes later to get to the post-funeral reception. This fellow would not stop talking about how impressed he was with Jim, what a unique guy Jim was, and how solid an individual Jim was during his time on the school board. 

What elicited the response from this gentleman was when I said in the eulogy that of the many strengths Jim had, one of the most noticeable was his clear thinking and objective reasoning. Jim and I would often have serious business discussions with major financial implications, yet Jim would always answer objectively and honestly even if it wasn’t in his personal best interest to do so. That resonated with this former school superintendent, who worked with Jim on many sensitive issues with the teachers’ unions. As always, Jim took a path of objectivity and honest assessment, often much to the chagrin of those teachers’ unions.

As a postscript to that story: weeks later, toward the end of July, one of our AIN team members shared with me that she was driving by a school in northern New Jersey, and she saw a huge banner out front that simply read “Thank you, Jim Holahan.”

I also shared in the eulogy that Jim had persistence. In addition to being a dogged worker, he was always after that “one great ultimate story.” Along these lines I shared two special stories of working with Jim Holahan.

The first had to do with Jim’s unfulfilled desire to interview Marcel Dassault, patriarch/founder of what is today the magnificent French aerospace company Dassault Aviation, and one of Jim’s aerospace heroes. 

In the early days of AIN, the Dassault headquarters were located in Vaucresson, a small village just west of Paris. Jim was caught trespassing on the property, climbing over a fence to try to get into the headquarters building to get that special interview with Marcel Dassault. Uninvited and unescorted, Jim was politely asked to leave the premises.

Years later Jim was in São Jose dos Campos, Brazil, home of Embraer. Jim had “quietly wandered” out to a grass area at the center of an airport to get a picture of an experimental aircraft Embraer was test flying, an aircraft that had not been seen in public. Once again, Jim was escorted off the location.

Jim’s unswerving approach also fueled a huge strength of loyalty to his staff. Any editor, reporter or writer–in fact, any editorial staff member–knew that Jim “had their six o’clock,” no questions asked. It did not matter if it turned out that a writer had misstated a fact; whatever it was, Jim would defend that editor with his own personal honor at stake. Jim was like the lion guarding his den: no one got past him who wasn’t fully authorized to do so. Including me. Even as a 50-percent shareholder in AIN at the time, I was forbidden to talk with an editor or writer without going through Jim first.

All of these remembrances came flooding back in the weeks following Jim’s passing. He will forever be “Editor Emeritus” of what is today AIN Publications. Jim’s editorial excellence, his obsessive focus on accuracy, telling the facts and not editorializing live on at AIN and are evident in every product we produce. It is why our company continues to be the leader in its field: we all adhere to the principles that Jim Holahan instilled in us 44 years ago.

Other Voices

Jim Holahan’s mark of uncompromising editorial quality and independence endures in the company he co-founded more than 40 years ago, nearly two decades after he retired. He continues to be an inspiration to all of us who were privileged enough to have worked for him. Jim recruited me in 1990. From our first meeting at La Guardia Airport he stood out to me as a maverick in the best sense of the word. At the time it seemed a gamble to accept his offer of employment but it has turned out for me to have been the chance of a lifetime. I am forever grateful for the opportunity Jim gave me and the faith he had in me. – Charles Alcock

A milestone. The greatest generation is leaving us. – Lou Churchville

To my mind Jim was one of the aviation trade media industry greats; his breadth of knowledge was wonderful, his writing sublime and his sense of media integrity unsurpassed. Together with Wilson they created and forged a top-quality publication that Wilson of course leads today. I still think back to the many visits Wilson used to pay to me on advertising/publishing quests when I was at BAe and the enjoyment I always had from those meetings. But at no time did we venture into the hallowed territory that was rightly Jim’s. Please pass on my condolences to Wilson–it was a long and fruitful association together. – David Dorman

Sad news indeed. Jim was a fine man, passionate about aviation and a superb editor. A beacon has gone dark. We are losing a generation that set a high standard for all who have followed. Rest in peace, Jim. – Bill Garvey

He was very nice to me, and I’m sorry to learn of his passing. – George Larson

Sad to learn of Jim’s death, although 94 is a good innings. He was the conscience of AIN/ACN. I admired him plenty. – Jamie McIntyre

This outstanding man is one of three editors that I served from whom I learned a lot as I progressed as an aerospace journalist. May Jim rest in peace. – Chris Pocock

At Jim’s funeral, his family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations should be made to The Jim Holahan Scholarship Fund, c/o Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, 600 S. Clyde Blvd, Daytona Beach, FL 32114 (phone 386/226-6010).