North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission member Joseph “Joe” Bertrum Hollowell Jr. of Tyner died Sept. 27. He was 85.
His funeral was Oct. 4 in Edenton.
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Well known for decades for his civic roles and public service, the Chowan County farmer had only been a coastal commissioner since this past summer, having been appointed by the state Senate for his expertise in wildlife. His term was to have expired June 2030. Hollowell’s expertise extended to all realms of local government, where he demonstrated winning ways.
According to his obituary, he had a way of forging relationships.
He was “very much a gentleman,” said Coastal Resources Commission Chair Renee Cahoon.
Despite his short tenure on the commission, Cahoon said he had been attending its meetings for at least two years. “He drove to Wilmington and Ocean Isle Beach before he was ever appointed to the commission.”
Cahoon described a conversation she once had with Hollowell in which they were recalling the early 1970s, when the Coastal Area Management Act was first proposed.
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“What he told me, throughout that time period, was that he traveled around trying to get everybody signed off and endorsing CAMA. He was a very strong proponent when it first came out,” she said.
Commissioner Jordan Hennessy told Coastal Review that Hollowell had worked on the initial Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership project, serving as APNEP’s local government liaison in 1993.
Hollowell was, Hennessy added, “really involved in other civic matters.”
Often described as someone who never met a stranger, Hollowell seemed to gravitate toward a career in politics.
Throughout the 1980s, Hollowell served as a Chowan County Commissioner and was actively working with statewide organizations. He was president of the North Carolina Jaycees from 1976 to 1977 and later served as state president of the American Cancer Society. He also chaired the Albemarle Regional Council of Government.
A former Democrat who later became politically conservative, Hollowell is considered to have been instrumental in creating a viable, strong Republican Party in northeastern North Carolina.
After graduating from North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and life science, he returned to work on his family’s farm.
During a February 2024 meeting of the Chowan County Board of Commissioners, according to the minutes of that meeting, Hollowell told the panel that his family had moved to the county in 1690 and that he, too, was a county native.
And it was his practice to be blunt, or direct, in expressing himself. On the commissioners’ agenda for that meeting was the issue of where to place a Confederate Civil War statue within Edenton.
Hollowell told county commissioners that, although his ancestors had fought for the “Southern cause,” slavery was, according to the meeting minutes, which are paraphrased, “a disgrace and it should have never happened.” Hollowell said at the time that when he sees the statue, “he is reminded of a history that we never want to live again where people are sold as property. He stated that the monument should remind us that we don’t want to ever go back to that … He stated that he will walk with everyone to fight slavery anywhere in the country.”
Hollowell’s passing not only leaves a void for those who knew him best and called him friend, but also a visible absence on the Coastal Resources Commission.
“I’ve known Joe for 17 years. He and I were very close,” said Hennessy.
