Senator Hollings at the 1999 NTA Annual Meeting

Ernest Frederick "Fritz" Hollings (January 1, 1922-- )

U.S. Senator from South Carolina (1966-2005).

Hollings was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He went to The Citadel and received a B.A. in 1942; he later attended the University of South Carolina and received a LL.B. in 1947 and is a brother of the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. Senator Hollings and his wife "Peatsy" Liddy have four children.

Hollings served as an officer in the U.S. Army's 323rd and 457th Artillery units from 1942 to 1945, during World War II, and was awarded the Bronze Star. He was first elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1948; he was subsequently elected lieutenant governor of the state in 1955 and Governor in 1958. He was governor from 1959 until 1963.

He was elected in a special election on November 8, 1966, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to complete the unexpired term of Olin D. Johnston; reelected in 1968, 1974, 1980, 1986, 1992 and 1998 and served from November 9, 1966, to January 3, 2005

Senator Hollings has been a strong supporter of the textile industry in South Carolina and the rest of the U.S. His efforts on behalf of the industry included his bill to exempt textiles from the Tokyo round of world trade talks and numerous 1980s fights over the Uruguay Round. In October 1995 the Wall Street Journal characterized him as the Senator from Textiles.

In 1979 the Northern Textile Association awarded Senator Hollings the Silver Medal at the association's 125th Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.