Medill Professor Ben Holden died Wednesday, June 10, 2026, of a heart attack. He was 63. Holden led the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer’s newsroom for six years as executive editor from 2004-2010.
Several friends and former colleagues of Holden shared with the Ledger-Enquirer some memories about him and explained the positive impact he made on Columbus and the Chattahoochee Valley through his work at the L-E and in the community.
Dimon Kendrick-Holmes, who was features editor, metro editor and senior editor for projects at different times during Holden’s L-E tenure, described him as “larger than life.”
“He wanted to do everything in a big way,” said Kendrick-Holmes, now North Carolina editor for Lee Enterprises and executive editor of the Greensboro News and Record and the Winston-Salem Journal. “He wanted to do the kinds of stories that that you find in big newspapers, so that’s one thing that really made it fun working with him. He wanted you to do your, your very best, and he worked with you to kind of find out what you were skilled at and good at, and he really our stories to look like the kinds of stories you would see in the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.”
As much as Holden wasn’t afraid to be a hard-hitting journalist, Kendrick-Holmes noted, he also didn’t shy away from showing his soft side.
During a tough time Kendrick-Holmes was going through, Holden sent him a card with a message he still cherishes: Hang in there, buddy. Team needs you.
“He always used sports metaphors,” Kendrick-Holmes said. “… He didn’t come across as a nurturer, but in the end, I think he really helped me find what I really wanted to do (as a newsroom leader), and that helped the paper.”
Dusty Nix, who retired as the Ledger-Enquirer’s editorial page editor in 2017, described Holden as “a very bright and very energetic guy.”
“I enjoyed working with him,” Nix said, adding with a laugh. “His staff meetings could get sidetracked by long discussions about sports. But he was a good editor, and he was a good editor to work for.”
That never was more apparent to Nix when he disagreed with the L-E’s publisher about whom the newspaper should endorse for president. Nix refused to write such an editorial, and Holden found the fine line between the two opposing forces: He honored the publisher’s prerogative, but he didn’t force Nix to go against his conscience, so he wrote the editorial himself.
“He picked up the ball for me,” Nix said. “… I had my differences with Ben. You know how high-pressure a newspaper is sometimes, and there’s going to be friction among people, … but he shrugged it off because he knew it wasn’t personal.
“Things could get heated and all of that, but Ben was a good support system for me. Whenever I got mad at him, it never lasted that long.”
Nix also respected Holden for his “good journalistic instincts” and courage to publish the best available version of the truth, wherever the facts led.
“I don’t think he ever shied away from anything that he thought would piss people off,” Nix said. “If something needed to go in the paper, and if it pissed people off, then too bad. I don’t think he ever chickened out on anything like that.”
Dawn Minty, who worked as L-E features editor while Holden led the newsroom, described his vision for the newspaper.
“As a journalist, Ben was never afraid to ask difficult questions and hold public figures and leaders accountable,” said Minty, now senior manager of external communications for Global Payments. “He was devoted to uncovering the truth, breaking news and ensuring stories were reported with accuracy, fairness and context.”
Holden was so insistent on journalists being open to various opinions, Minty recalled one of his favorite techniques to foster such a debate during editorial meetings.
He often “was asking editors to argue a story from a perspective opposite their own,” she said. “Through those discussions, he taught us to ask better, more thoughtful questions and to develop a deeper appreciation for viewpoints that differed from our own.”
Minty also appreciated the way Holden treated folks on the staff and in the community.
“Ben cared deeply about making a positive difference in people’s lives,” she said. “Whether inviting ‘newspaper orphans’ to join his family for meals and celebrations or spending countless hours mentoring students and colleagues, he helped people feel valued, included and welcome.”
Minty saw that kind of approach from Holden even as he asked her 12-year-old daughter how school was going.
“When she offered her standard response of ‘fine,’ he gently pressed further, asking how AI was changing the way she studied,” Minty said. “What followed was a thoughtful conversation that reminded me how important younger voices are as we navigate an increasingly technology-fueled future.
“This is one of the things I will miss most about Ben — the conversations sparked by his endless curiosity and genuine desire to understand and connect with people of all ages, from all walks of life. He was a trusted mentor, a valued friend, and an exceptional man. He made a positive difference in many lives, and he will be deeply missed.”
Karl Douglass, a partner in the governmental affairs firm Ohio River South, instantly became friends with Holden when they met during one of the initial community events Holden attended after arriving in Columbus with his wife, Melanie Slaton, a labor law attorney, and their daughter, Joy, who was 7 at the time, from Palm Springs, California, where Holden was deputy managing editor for non-daily publications at the Desert Sun Publishing Co.
Douglass described Holden as “fierce about his integrity. He was just like, ‘It matters to me that people know that I’m always acting fairly and justly.’ That was like in all aspects of his life, not just as a journalist.”
As the second Black executive editor in the Ledger-Enquirer’s history, Holden had to handle racial issues from various influencers in the community, Douglass said.
“There was a lot of pressure from the Black community for him to take a line that was more Black,” Douglass said. “And there was a lot of cynicism from others saying, ‘Oh, he’s going to be kind of the Black editor.’ But he was like, ‘I’m neither of those, I’m a journalist with integrity, with standards, and I’m just gonna give you the news, and you can make up your own mind about what that news means.”
Douglass praised Holden for raising money and establishing in 2009 the Columbus Scholars, a nonprofit organization that selects fifth-graders from local elementary schools to mentor through high school graduation and to provide supplemental funding for their college education.
It was Holden’s way of paying forward the investment that was made in him. Holden grew up in a family with meager means in St. Louis, but he received scholarships to earn a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1985 and a law degree with a master’s in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989.
Holden’s career also included stints as: a corporate law attorney with Cooper, White & Cooper, San Francisco, 1989-1991, and with Weissburg and Aronson Inc., Los Angeles, 1991-1992; a Wall Street Journal reporter in Los Angeles, 1993-1997; assistant to the president of the McClatchy Co., Sacramento, California, 1997-1999; assistant managing editor, senior editor of news and administration with the Reno Gazette-Journal, Reno, Nevada, 1999-2002.
He left the L-E in 2010 to become director of the Reynolds National Center for the Courts and Media at the University of Nevada-Reno, but he kept his home in Columbus, also when he was an assistant and associate professor a the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2014-22) and most recently a professor at Northwestern University since 2022.
“Ben did all these things, and he was like, ‘I just believe there’s a lot more poor kids who are really smart that nobody can know how smart they are because of how poor they are, and that seems like a problem we should be able to fix’
“So with his Columbus Scholars, he was like, ‘I’m not fixing the whole problem, but you know, it’s like starfish, I can’t throw all the starfish back into the ocean, but it matters to the one that I did.’ He was very much like that, believing he can operate in this corner of the world in a way that helps some people.”
In an interview Friday with the Ledger-Enquirer, Holden’s wife Melanie Slaton and Daughter Joy Holden expressed pride about their husband and father — and gratitude for the Columbus community.
“Ben was a dedicated journalist,” said Slaton, a partner at the Columbus office of the law firm Hall Booth Smith. “He believed passionately in the First Amendment, and he taught his students, both when he was teaching at Northwestern and then prior to that at the University of Illinois (at Urbana-Champaign), the importance of, journalists in society and that it’s the only profession protected in the Constitution, the freedom of the press. He had high ethical standards.”
Holden was so dedicated to the Columbus Scholars, Slaton said, the Monday before he died, he was in court representing one of the scholars who needed guardianship papers. In the 17 years since he founded the Columbus Scholars, the program has helped 45 students graduate from college by raising more than $1 million, and 75 students are in the program now, she said.
Joy, an associate at the law firm HWG in Washington, D.C., said Holden was her hero.
“My dad accomplished so much in his life,” she said. “For a lot of my high school (years), he worked in places that were not in Columbus, but he never missed a single game. If I had a basketball game, he was there. If I had a lacrosse game, he was there. If I had a debate tournament, he was there. He was always on a plane coming home, and he was there for all of the important moments in my life.”
“… He was the most ethical person that I know. He cared so much about this country, and journalism was his service, his way to give back to the country and to speak truth to power, to hold power to account, and along with the Columbus Scholars, it was his life’s work.”
Slaton thanked the Columbus community for its support.
“It’s a big small town,” she said, “and the people are kind and warm. So many folks have come by with food and just to love on us.”
https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/article316077843.html
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