Success Story
Mike Holton
Director of Rural Operations
A “flash of information” led Mike Holton back to his Nebraska roots. The Tilden native was on his way to a job interview in Texas when a moment of clarity made him decide to move back to Northeast Nebraska. Growing up, Holton said, he had always wanted to get away from his hometown. His family, made up of his parents and three sisters, lived in town, where his father owned a restaurant. The family also worked a farm near Meadow Grove.
The 42-year-old Holton said he was active in school, participating in both sports and drama, but he acknowledged that he thought small towns were boring. He graduated from Elkhorn Valley High School in 1980 and decided to attend the University of South Dakota in Vermillion to study psychology. While in college, Holton began working at a dog track in North Sioux City, S.D., to help fund his schooling.
The part-time job led to full-time work in management in the pari-mutuel wagering industry after graduation. He married his first wife in 1984 after meeting her in Tucson, Ariz. They later divorced. In 1988, he married Christine, whom he met while working in Dubuque, Iowa.
While emphasizing that he was not a gambler, Holton said he liked working in the gaming industry because it was glamorous, exciting and gave him the opportunity to travel. But it meant frequent moves and long hours, too, sometimes working as many as 90 hours a week.
Holton said he decided to move back to Nebraska with his wife and children after what he called his own personal “story of St. Paul” - a reference to the biblical roadside conversion of Saul, a persecutor of Christians, into St. Paul, a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
The race track he was managing in Pittsburg, Kan., folded after Kansas residents voted against a law that would have enabled casino gambling. It meant Holton was looking for a job. The offer that appealed to him most, Holton said, was management of a large track in Houston. While he was driving on the busy Sam Houston Expressway, Holton said he “had a flash.” He asked himself, “Is this what you want to do?”After the interview, Holton said, he went home to his wife and they decided to move back to Northeast Nebraska.
“What I realized - in the 20 years that I was gone developing a life - was that there are things and attributes about small communities that you will never get in the larger ones,” he said.
The Holton family had been living in the Denver area when the Columbine student killings occurred. Holton said the tragedy influenced his outlook on small communities.
“What it told me was that here are students in one of the most affluent regions of the country with no sense of values,” he said.
Holton said he believes the students who committed the murders felt left out. That might not have occurred in a smaller community because those types of towns foster a stronger sense of belonging, he said. Holton said he also wanted his four children to have the opportunity to live in a small community. He also wanted to live nearer to his parents, who had relocated to Plainview.
So, after working in pari-mutuel management for almost 20 years, Holton moved his family to Plainview four years ago, even though he had not yet found a job in the area.
His wife, Christine, was working as a medical records transcriptionist, so she continued to work from their home once they settled in Plainview. Holton said he was sad to see how much many small towns had deteriorated, losing both businesses and residents.
“I really wanted to make a difference,” he said. “I wanted to come back to Northeast Nebraska to try to make things better, and I wanted to use any experience I had ... to make it better for Northeast Nebraska ... and I didn’t know how that would look, I just knew I wanted to do that. It was important.”
Everything fell into place, Holton said.
He was grateful that his children, who previously had visited their grandparents a few times a year, were able to see their grandparents almost every day for a year before Holton’s father died. He got a job working for the Center of Rural Affairs, based in Lyons, where he is now the director of the rural operations program and works to help develop rural communities.
“The main thing is, when you’re young you don’t realize how good things are. You always think the grass is greener on the other side,” he said.
But now, Holton said, he has a sincere passion about living in small towns.
“I’ve been gone and away,” he said. “I’ve come back with another viewpoint.” Holton said he thinks small towns appeal to people because of the peace and safety they offer.
“I like to look at these small communities as what they do have. Every small community has a tremendous heritage,” he said. “To me, it’s important for the rural culture that these small communities understand that they have a role and they have a place.”
- Story Courtesy of the Norfolk Daily News
