Many of the great landmark reports to Congress bore his mark, among them the Interregional Highways report of 1944 and a series of national needs studies. They formed the framework for the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and the balance of the Federal-aid system and, as such, are basic to the knowledge of the history of national highway development in the United States.
Thomas H. MacDonald, long the Commissioner of Public Roads, commented before his retirement in 1953: “At no time in the last 25 years has there been a report from Research which did not have the stamp of genius in it.” As understudy to H. S. Fairbank, Deputy Commissioner of Research, Holmes’ thoughts permeated all research activities. For example, for years he guided the applied research and development of new planning policy procedures. These were implemented in the Federal-aid highway program, which provided continual stimulation for the physical, economic, and resource development of the Nation.
In 1956 Holmes became Director of Research for the Bureau of Public Roads. As such he fostered the development of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program within the Highway Research Board. He also deserves credit for many activities between various levels of government affecting the Nation’s highway transport program. Examples include his leadership in determining appropriate sizes and weights of commercial vehicles and a rational allocation of highway costs between users and nonusers.
When Research and Planning were divided into separate offices in 1962, Ted Holmes decided to go with Planning as its Director because, as he later remarked, he saw there “the greater opportunity for improving our transportation and our society.” In 1967 he assumed the responsibility of Director of Policy Planning for the Federal Highway Administration in the new Department of Transportation and, with the reorganization of the FHWA, became Associate Administrator for Planning.
Perhaps a fitting description of Ted Holmes is that of an “imagineer”—one who is able to link creative talent, engineering judgment, and administrative finesse. His has always been an inquiring mind, restless, seeking solutions soundly anchored in analysis of relevant facts, yet always cognizant and respectful of opinions differing from his own. To his associates, he always pressed one significant point—“How well we carry on our work will be judged not by this generation, but by those future generations to follow.”
His writings lace the literature of traffic engineering, highway and transportation research, and planning. His “Man in California, 1980’s” paper, as so many others, reflects the range and brilliance of his thought. Following his retirement from Federal service in 1971, he undertook a study of urban transportation planning for the International Road Federation. His 1974 report, The Coordination of Urban Development and the Planning and Development of Transportation Facilities, is a basic source document on urban transportation and development planning practices in selected major countries around the world.
Holmes’ accomplishments have been recognized in many quarters. Some of the principal honors he has earned include the Department of Commerce Meritorious Service Award, presented in 1950, and the Department’s gold medal for Exceptional Service in 1962. He was presented the Roy W. Crum Award for distinguished service by the Highway Research Board in 1958. He received, in 1968, the Thomas H. MacDonald Award “For Outstanding Service in Highway Engineering,” from the American Association of State Highway Officials, and in 1970, the Theodore M. Matson Award for Outstanding Contributions to Traffic Engineering. At the close of his official service to the Department of Transportation in 1971, Secretary John A. Volpe presented Mr. Holmes with the Department’s Silver Medal for Meritorious Achievement in a retirement ceremony attended by several hundred of his friends and colleagues from government and many private organizations in the Washington area.
