To Scott Holleran

A Birthday Card

I met Scott in person just before Thanksgiving 2021. He was in St. Louis (where I live) researching Union Station and other landmarks in the city. We walked around Union Station and stopped at the exhibits; he was excited to teach me about some of the train models that still existed there. I related to him my long-ago memories of when I was young and my mother, brother, and I rode the train from southeast Missouri to Kansas City — via Union Station: it was 1960. In those days it still functioned as a hub for train travel — not so today.

Of course, I had known Scott for decades, both of us being Objectivists and both participating in the opposition to government owned (controlled) health care as a far back as the 1990’s.

Scott was then and still is a writer: one who sees into the human soul and extracts just about everything that is important. He even honored me over the years by asking me to critique some of his writing; all he wanted from me was an unadulterated opinion of it. That’s pure Scott: always pushing the edge for a better product.

He has mingled with the well known and the unknown — always seeking out a good story — with a distinctly Objectivist point-of-view in his writing style. One need only to read his review of the Andy Griffith Show (10/25/2023), a series from the 1960s, to get the sense that Scott looks at a generally beloved series with a critical eye on its philosophical flaws and its not so common triumphs. The reader will not find a better analysis anywhere. Period.

Yet, Scott writes about everything: philosophy, biography, film reviews, news commentary, history, etc. One needs merely to browse his website — scottholleran.com — to learn of his diverse writings over a period of some thirty years.

As this is a tribute to Scott on his birthday, I want to end this note by stating that this is a good man, a benevolent man, a man of the mind, and a man of justice.

Scott, it’s been my great privilege to have known you these many years, and I wish you every happiness in celebration of your birthday.

Mark