In Memoriam: Benjamin A. Holden 1963–2026

Benjamin A. Holden, a journalist, attorney, educator, and tireless advocate for his community, passed away on June 10, 2026. He was sixty-three.

Ben was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Lorine and Percy Holden on June 3, 1963. He got his start in journalism at seventeen as a cub reporter in the sports department of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering high school athletics. His work there earned him a full scholarship from the Pulitzer family to attend the University of Missouri. While at Mizzou, Ben crossed as a member of Omega Psi Phi on March 27, 1983. He later attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his J.D. and M.B.A. in 1989, and where he met his future wife, Melanie Slaton, then a fellow law student.

A veteran journalist with a career spanning decades, Ben covered some of the nation's most consequential stories as a Los Angeles-based reporter for The
Wall Street Journal, reporting on urban affairs, utility deregulation, and landmark legal cases including the aftermath of the Rodney King beating trial, the O.J. Simpson double murder case, and the murder trial of Snoop Dogg. His 1995 front-page Journal piece, "O.J. G.D.P.," examined the economic spectacle of the Simpson trial and earned him the Deadline Award from the New York Chapter of the Society of Professional journalists. He also practiced law in California during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and remained licensed in both California and Georgia until his death.

From 2004 to 2010, Ben served as Executive Editor of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, guiding its newsroom through a period of profound transformation in the media industry.

Ben's commitment to press freedom extended well beyond American borders. As director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for the Courts & Media — an affiliate of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada — he worked to strengthen the relationship between the press and the judiciary. Traveling to Kosovo on behalf of the U.S. State Department and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), he led hands-on trainings for judges, prosecutors, and journalists, in a nation where public trust in institutions was still being built. He believed deeply that a free press and an accountable judiciary were essential to Kosovo's democratic future. That work culminated in a scholarly article published in the Missouri Law Review comparing press freedoms in the United States and Kosovo, with recommendations for strengthening speech and transparency protections in the young republic.

Ben later joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, then Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where he taught students about the vital role of journalists in a democratic society and the singular importance of a free press — the only profession expressly protected by the Constitution. He was a fierce advocate for his students, helping many to pursue careers in journalism, the law, and beyond. He also served on the board of The Missourian, the student newspaper at the University of Missouri, and mentored young journalists throughout his life.

At the time of his death, Ben had just completed a draft of Spirit of St. Louis, a semi-autobiographical novel set in 1980s St. Louis and two fictional Midwestern college football towns. The book follows two first-generation Black men coming of age as they head to college and beyond — navigating race and class, the world of big-time college football, and the golden age of newspapers. At its heart, it is a story about friendship and the struggle to make it as an outsider in America. The family plans to fulfill his dream of publishing his recently finished work.

Perhaps closest to his heart was Columbus Scholars Inc., the nonprofit he founded in Columbus, Georgia in 2009. Partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Chattahoochee Valley, the organization pairs economically disadvantaged students with mentors and scholarships. In the seventeen years since its founding, Columbus Scholars has raised more than $1 million and supported more than one hundred students. Ben believed that the only thing separating a smart student who succeeds from one who doesn't is support — and he spent more than forty years proving it, mentoring young people with ability and limited means throughout his life.

Ben is survived by his wife of thirty-one years, Melanie Slaton, and his daughter, Joy Holden. He is also survived by his brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and by the extended family who gathered for beloved reunions known as "Fling Dings." He was a constant presence at sporting events, birthday parties, and weddings: a devoted husband, father, and family man in every sense.

An avid sports fan, Ben held regular season tickets to the Atlanta Hawks and closely followed the Northwestern Wildcats and Missouri Tigers football teams.

Ben Holden lived as he worked: with conviction, generosity, and an unshakable belief in the power of stories and people to make things better. He is mourned by all who knew him, and by the many lives he shaped through his reporting, his mentoring, his teaching, and his boundless spirit.