Lennart John Holmquist

Previous Page         Next Page

2010s in North Carolina

Kristofer, turned 18 on December 18, 2010. He graduated at Carrboro High School in 2011 Among his interest is soccer which he played as a little fellow in Oakland, California, many years in Switzerland and several years in North Carolina. In 2010 he was awarded by Carrboro High School, Most Outstanding Soccer Player.

After high school he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a university in Troy, New York for a year majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He then transferred to the University of Colorado Boulder and eventually changed his major to Mathematics.

Cisco Systems

Len got a job as a technical writer around 2010 editing Cisco documents targeted toward the U.S. government and NATO. He also created a website for the department.

In 2016 Len's contract with Cisco was ended, and a fellow technical writer, Catherine Willis, a Cisco employee (not a contractor) was laid off. This was part of a cost-cutting and employee/contractor reduction at Cisco. The department in which both worked (GGSG) was required by upper management to reduce staff. Management at GGSG felt the department was more in need of engineers than technical writers. Later Len heard from a co-worker Tony, that GGSG's documents suffered as a result.

For the next six months Len searched for work online and sent out resumes to many contract companies and corporations. He had a few job interviews that did not work out. However, in 2017 he was rehired back to Cisco in a different department, Cisco Cloud Services (CCS), this time through the company Bay Area Techworkers. That job lasted until August 2017 after which he was hired on 30 August by another contract company called Teksystems, again to work at Cisco in another department as a technical writer, but again his work was mostly editing of documents. That contract lasted for several months after which he got a technical writing job with another Cisco department. This time he was working again for Bay Area Techworkers.

2014 Sulatorp Sold

In 1973 Roy Rinell, Len's uncle in Sweden built a cabin which he named Sulatorp. For many years Roy lived in Sulatorp and drove about an hour to his job as a konditor (pastry chef) in the city of Göteborg. On weekends and holidays he might invite friends to Sulatorp for coffee and pastry or a meal, of which the meat or fish was smoked in his smoker or BBQed on the grill both standing by the barbwire fence in the backyard. Now and then through the years family members from America visited, such as Roy's sister, Doris and her husband Bud or their children. Len visited Roy at Sulatorp on his way back to the U.S.A. from Israel in 1973 and on a few other occasions during the years.

When Roy died in 1989 the cabin passed to Roy's parents, Oscar and Hellen. They continued to live in their apartment in Torslanda but often took the bus out to Björketorp, and took a taxi the short drive to Sulatorp.

Hellen passed away in 1991. Doris suggested to Oscar that he move from the apartment to Sulatorp, which he was glad to do. Oscar passed away 1995 and Sulatorp was inherited by Doris. Some years later Doris passed Sulatorp down to her kids Len, Meilynn, Carey and Cookie. Doris, Meilynn and Carey paid for upkeep, yearly taxes and other expenses of Sulatorp and spent what time the could at Sulatorp. Carey, skilled in carpentry and other trades, made improvements to the cabin such as putting in more windows to allow in more light and building a sauna. Meilynn used her home decorating skills on the interior. Len and Cookie could contribute little for various reasons, mostly financial, and never visited Sulatorp after they inherited their portion though very much wanted to.

Thinking ahead to retirement Len dreamed and planned to spend his retirement years at Sulatorp - at least as much a possible when other family members weren't using it, make needed repairs and improvements, and contribute financially. He wanted to use Sulatorp as a base to research and finish his book Foreign Devils, write other books and articles and short stories, create a Sweden travel website, get into art, research family history, spend time with his Rinell, Colldén, Nordblom, Holmquist and other cousins, and the neighbors around Sulatorp, including Roy's good friend Jan Front, and finally get a chance to see much of Sweden. He also dreamed of having Sulatorp as a home-base for his siblings and cousins to come, having a good time together, and share a common goal of fixing up the cabin. Retirement was only be a few years away. In 2015 he would be 65 years old.

However, Len's sister and brother wanted to cash out. Meilynn could use the money from the sale of Sulatorp for other things. Carey and his wife Holly, who had been living in Europe for many years, were leaving Europe for good. They too could use the money for other things.

Len's youngest sister and his mother said they could contribute $200 of the $300 needed every month to pay for various expenses which included taxes and utilities, excluding any repairs and upgrades in the future. Len could come up with the other $100. Len and his wife were selling their home in the North Carolina, and Len said he could foresee having more money to put toward Sulatorp after the house was sold. However, a delay in selling Sulatorp was not agreed upon.

Sulatorp was sold in December of 2014. Most of the family possessions were included in the sale. Since Meilynn and Carey had put the most money into Sulatorp, they felt they should be reimbursed with money from the sale. Len, Cookie and their mom would receive $1000 each as a 'gift'. Len didn't accept cash. For him Sulatorp was not for sale, and so did not want to receive anything from the sale. He suggested the money be divided between his mother and siblings, which it was.

Len was devastated, shattered. He had a hard time dealing with loss of the family home and the rich life he would have had in his remaining years with his Swedish family, the beautiful countryside, cities, towns and villages of Sweden, his family's history and the good times his American family would have enjoyed when gathered at Sulatorp. He was sure he would never see Sweden again, a country he felt to be in a real sense his home. Five plus years after the sale he was still not over the loss. He could not get it out if his mind.

The sale of Sulatorp had may ramifications beyond not have a nice little home in Sweden to retire to.

As mentioned above Len saw Sulatorp as a place for he, his brother and sisters to gather during the remaining years of their lives - all were near retirement. He envisioned walks in the forest and country roads together, Bibbing in the backyard, planting a garden, visiting neighbors, visiting family in various parts of Sweden, celebrating Christmas, Easter and holidays together when any of them were together at Sulatorp at the same time, exploring towns, villages and cities and having family and friends come visit and stay with them. That was all now gone. Sadly for Len he would not be seeing much of his brother and sisters. He would not be living near them. Visits would be infrequent. Visits with his Swedish family would probably never happen again.

Ramifications included more. Len was writing a book about the Rinell family's life in China entitled Foreign Devils. He needed access to the archives of Bethel Seminary in Stockholm for material. He could not afford to travel to Sweden, stay for any length of time in a hotel or B&B to do research. Sulatorp was a low cost solution. He could live a Sulatorp, take the train to Stockholm whenever he needed to, and return to Sulatorp and write.

Writing the book was not the only goal. He planned to write short stories and books with in a Swedish setting. He needed to live there, not only for the inspiration for his writing but also to accurately give the reader a feel for Sweden, its green forests and fields, gray stones, blue lakes and seas, the smell in the air of wood burning in the fireplaces and iron stoves, the crispness of the fall and winter air and of the varied architecture of the villages, towns and cities. These stories and books would not be written.

The sale of Sulatorp meant that a future he certainly had he did not. He would need to plan a different life for himself. He didn't see his future in America. He needed to find a place to live to build a different future. Living at Sulatorp would have cost a base average of $300 to live. He would never find a place to rent that was that inexpensive. He would look for a place to live that was as cheap as possible, and a place that would a humble, because that's all it would be, quality of life. He still wanted to live in Europe. Though he an Jill had good friends in Switzerland, that country was out of the question. Too expensive. Len thought perhaps of Greece, Turkey or Morocco. Jill though of southern France. She spoke French. France though may be too expensive. Len started to research.

2017 Home at Cobb Terrace Sold

Len and Jill's home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which they loved, was a burden financially. The mortgage was too high for their combined incomes, and always had been. Len didn't know how long he could remain employed. Jobs came and went and he was getting older. Finding jobs in the future would probably be difficult for someone over 65. The decided to sell. They got a good price, thanks in large part to Jill who insisted on keeping the price high though offers came in for lower amounts. The profit from the sale went to Jill to reimburse the down payment she provided to buy the house, and the remaining money to pay bills though money was available to make repairs on Sulatorp. Since they were not paying toward a mortgage, money was available for the monthly expenses. Of course this all came too late.

2017 Len and Jill Separate

Len and Jill's marriage was not going very well for a number of reasons. They decided to have a trial separation. Len rented a one bedroom apartment in at 6123 Farrington Road, apartment J13 in Chapel Hill with a one year lease. Jill rented a room from an artist friend, the main reason being that Jill was leaving for Greece for some advanced teaching English training. A short-term rental was expensive. She used Len's apartment to study and take her online class in preparation for her training in Athens. In September Len drover her to the airport. They kissed on the cheeks in Swiss fashion, left, right, left. Jill asked for a hug which Len gladly gave her.

The apartment on the third floor of an multiple apartment complex named Crosstown of Chapel Hill had a living room, a small dining nook, a small kitchen separated from the living room by a half wall, a bedroom, bathroom and balcony. Trees secluded it from other apartments, giving him privacy at least until the trees lost their leaves in the fall.

Len furnished the apartment with a large old wood library desk bought in Berkeley, California some years before on which he placed two computers. A two drawer metal filing cabinet, which he bought from PTA thrift store for $7.50 he placed to the left side on which he placed a scanner with a document feeder, a small wood table which he found next to the trash compactor at his apartment complex he placed to the right on which he placed a flat bed scanner, an old wood two drawer possibly handmade scared 'coffee' table possibly of southeast Asian origin which he bought at the PTA for $30 was in the dining nook along with a wood a wicker chair from Jill's family, and a deck chair from their home on Cobb Terrace sat in the middle of the living room. A small carved Chinese desk from Taiwan, a gift from his parents around 1960, and a carved round low Chinese wooden table from the Rinell family and Sulatorp, originally from the family home in Tsingtao, China, were placed off to the side.

On the floor, by the desk he placed a combined flat weave / pile carpet, bought in Turkey many years previous. On the walls he hung an old flat weave kilim he and Jill also bought in Turkey, a few Rinell family Chinese scrolls he brought back from Sulatorp after his grandfather, Oscar, passed away, a scroll painted by his mom of an Asian woman, a Swedish oil painting, a rural scene of two people working a farm field, which had once hung at Sulatorp, but originally which hung in his great-grandmother, Ida Colldén's apartment in Göteborg, and an old framed painting, possibly Buddhist monks at a temple, possibly Thai in origin, which he bought at PTA for around $50 in 2017.

In his bedroom he piled cardboard boxes, many of which contained family archives of documents, color slides and photos. At first he didn't have a bed. He used the deck recliner chair from Cobb Terrace, which he placed on the balcony. He slept better in the open fresh air, and which he wished he could have done so all the time, but the outdoor temperature eventually got too cold to be comfortable.

Len continued to work as a contractor technical writer for Cisco Systems. He was a remote worker during this time, which meant he did not have an office at work, but instead worked wherever he chose which usually was the Chapel Hill Public Library or his apartment.

From his apartment and his library table, with his computers and scanners he also worked on the history of the Rinell, Colldén, Holmquist, Swanson and tangent families to which he was related. In addition to writing and researching these families he digitized documents, slides, and photos, some of which he burned to DVDs or transferred to hard drives, an historic legacy to hand down to his son Kristofer and his descendants, his nephews and nieces and their descendants and the broader family circle.

Further, he digitized records so that he could donate some of the originals to institutions for their preservation, and to make them available to researchers. The original letters of his grandparents, John T. Holmquist and Ruth Swanson, from 1904-08 were going to Nordiska Museet in Stockholm for their archives. Rinell documents from around 1893 to 1951 and possibly later were going to Yale University or Duke University. All three of these institutions said they wanted the respective archives. Len's only regret from scanning these hundreds of documents mean that it took away time from his research and writing.

Len was not new to collecting and preserving documents. When he worked at Apple in the early days of the company, he collected Apple publications, which eventually became part of the Apple archives at Stanford University in California.

With Sulatorp gone, and he and Jill separated, at least temporarily, Len researched where he might live that was less expensive, where his meager retirement funds could go further. He considered Greece, a country in which he had traveled a number of times starting in the 1970s, and which he loved. Greece, though once cheap, may now be too expensive. Mexico was a possibly, home to many ex-pats. An acquaintance of Len's, the Greek-American, David, brother of travel writer Matt Barrett, suggested Thailand where his wife, Gin, was from. This was a tantalizing possibility for Len. Though he had never traveled to Thailand, he appreciated Asian culture, and knew he lived Thai food. And he knew that Thai were a welcoming and friendly people.

Writings

Len started writing and supplementing articles for Wikipedia in 2017 in his areas of interest. He was not paid for his work since Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia. Further, since Wikipedia is a collaboration, his articles may in time be further edited and added to by other writers.

The articles that Len wrote are Edward William Carson who was a cousin of Len's grandfather, John T. Holmquist, the Chicago Society of Miniature Painters, Swedish-American Art Association of Chicago, and Airwars a project that tracks and archives the international air war against 'Islamic State' and other groups in Iraq, Syria and Libya. The latter article he created to help add legitimacy to a worthwhile project.

He also added a section of the destruction of an historic district in Omaha, Nebraska, to the article C. Michael Harper. That section was cut and pasted from another Wikipedia article and slightly edited. Len believed that individuals should be noted not only for their accomplishments, but also their for their shortcomings, especially if they are individuals of power and/or influence.

He added to another existing article Society of Western Artists (1896–1914).

Finally, he improved various Swedish and English Wikipedia articles by adding links to other relevant information or slightly editing existing content (in the English articles).

2017 December

December came to a close. Jill and Kristofer met in Neuchâtel, Switzerland for the holidays - Jill flying from Greece where she was studying and Kristofer flying from Colorado while on his winter break. Len stayed behind in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

On Christmas day he received a call from them. A few days previously they visited the Christmas market in  Riquewihr, France. Kristofer also spent time with his childhood buddy, Gaetan, and Gaetan's friends. Before leaving for Switzerland Kristofer had been concerned about his French, whether he'd remember enough of his French to communicate in a not too halting way. However, he said he was doing better in his French than he thought he would.

They were staying with good Swiss friends Noel-Christine and Francois, and visiting other good friends the Swiss-Canadian Rohr family (Evan, Jennifer, Aspen, Hayden) and spent Christmas evening with them. Before Kristofer arrived Jill spent time with their good friends Christian and Nadine.

Kristofer returned to Boulder, Colorado to continue his studies. Jill returned to Athens, Greece to continue hers.

2018 Carrboro, North Carolina

Her time in Athens was nearing an end. Though she was not done with her course, the remaining coursework could be done online with the final exam done from any one of several cities worldwide. She looked for work. She sent her resume to a private school in England and she was accepted. She’d be teaching English for several weeks, while living on campus, to a class or two of international students at a British school. The start date was several weeks away.

Jill had been experiencing pain in her legs. During a two day period the pain was so great she had to crawl around her Athens’ apartment to get from her bedroom to the bathroom, living room and kitchen. With the help of contacts of her landlord, she got medication she needed. She knew she had to get back to the States to get it checked out. She would stay with Len. By this time Len had moved from his apartment at Farrington Road, Chapel Hill, NC to a cheaper 1 bedroom apartment at 605 Jones Ferry Road, QQ3 in town of Carrboro. Chapel Hill and Carrboro are so close to each other they are often referred to as Chapel Hill/Carrboro.

Len got Jill’s mattress and some linen from her storage unit outside of the town of Hillsborough. Len picked Jill up at the airport (RDU) and brought her back to her newly established bedroom. Jill saw the doctor at Duke who took x-rays and told her she should have both hips replaced, which entails cutting off the top of each tibia, inserting a titanium rod with ball joint that fits into the socket of the hip. A date was set for the first operation.

Rather than take furniture out of storage, most of which was hard to get to, Jill and Len bought pieces of furniture at the local PTA thrift stores in Carrboro and Chapel Hill to make Jill’s room comfortable and cozy. Len slept out in the living room. After some weeks the day of the operation arrived. Len drove Jill to the hospital, Jill checked in, and soon was in surgery. Len did his technical writing work from the hospital’s lobby, and had lunch in the hospital cafeteria. Jill’s operation took about 1 ½ hours followed by a few hours of recovery time. She spent the night in the hospital. The next morning Len picked her up, and settled her in her bedroom.

The next two weeks, Len worked remotely from home, making meals for Jill, bringing her water or other beverages, helping her to the bathroom, and changing her bandages. Jill recovered. After some weeks she was driving and visiting with friends. The time came for the operation on the next hip on 2 October 2018.

October 2018

The next operation was successful. Again she spent a lot of time horizontal in bed with an occasional trip to the bathroom. Surprisingly, in both cases she was walking though with the help of crutches, the first day.

2019

When his grandfather Oscar Rinell had passed away some years before Len and his siblings had gone to the family cabin, Sulatorp, to sort through family possessions. Len came across diaries belonging to his great-grandmother, Hedvig Rinell written mostly during her time in China beginning in the late 1800s, diaries of his grandmother, Hellen Rinell, written during her time later in Japan and Korea, scrapbooks of collected newspaper and magazine articles many of them written by his great-grand father Johan Alfred and grandfather, Oscar Rinell and binder of letters that Oscar had collected over the years. No one else was interested in these items so Len added them to a shipment going back to the States which also included Chinese antiques from the Rinell family.

Len wanted to use the available family members and the general public for research. He started by photocopying Hedvig's diaries and the scrapbooks and made copies for his cousins, Margie (Jonell) in Colorado and through her to Alice (Rinell) Hermansson in Uppsala, Sweden. He also started writing his book, Foreign Devils.

When the 'world wide web' came into general use, he scanned all this material (in 2019 he is still in the process of scanning the hundreds or thousand of letters and other material) and putting it all up on the web for researches. He also put the working draft of Foreign Devils online.

Even this paid off. Using the draft of Len's online book, two writers wrote articles in Chinese on the Rinell family in China. In 2019 Alice published a biography of Hedvig entitled Öster om bergen: Femtiofem år med Bibel och skolväska i Kina. Margie translated the book into English.

Jill got a job as an adjunct professor at Durham Tech in Durham, North Carolina, teaching English to immigrants from a number of countries. She was a naturally-gifted teacher. Student loved her classes and improved their English. Her class English through Drama was especially liked by her students.

Kristofer graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder and returned to Chapel Hill much to the joy of his parents, living in an apartment just a few minutes drive from Jill and Len. He got a part-time job at a small new restaurant in Carrboro named 401 Main, which is the street address. He got the job through his high school friend Evan Armstrong whose father was part owner of the restaurant. Kristofer worked as a bar tender and server often working nights or opening the restaurant and working the following hours during the day.

Len continued has work as a tech writer at Cisco Systems, this time working through the contract company Bay Area Techworkers. For most of his contract work at Cisco, now approaching ten years he received no vacation days nor sick days, which was common with contractors at Cisco. Now at least he received paid holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.

Len translated into English a Swedish a Wikipedia article on his great-grandfather, Johan Alfred Rinell.

With retirement and a move to another country in 2020 Len focused on scanning family documents, letters, and photos. When he moved to another country, he would not have the money to ship all the material to his new address. Also, he wanted to donate the Rinell material to Yale University so that it would be available to other writers and researchers.

The scanning of the all the material was daunting. It amounted to thousands of items. He used an Epson flat bed scanner and an Epson document feed scanner, downloading to a four terabyte hard drive, which automatically backed up to another four terabyte hard drive. Periodically he exchanged the backup hard drive with another four terabyte hard drive that Kristofer kept at his apartment. This was to help ensure that if Len's equipment was stolen or lost in a fire or whatever, another fairly recent backup would be available.

During this time Len also continued reading contemporary writers such as Ernest Hemingway and the travel writer Paul Theron to familiarize himself with their writing style. When Len 'retired' he wanted to spend more time writing a publishing.

December 2019

Toward the end of December Jill, Kristofer and Len were on a plane to LaGuardia airport. Approaching New York Kristofer poked his dad and pointed out the window.

'Look, the Statue of Liberty.'

'Where? On that little island?'

'Yes, that's it.'

Len could then make out a tiny green statue on an irregularly-shaped island. Not far away he saw what was perhaps Ellis Island. Within seconds, the skyline of New York glided into view from the right including the twin towers replacing the towers destroyed by terrorist on September 11.

Jay Martin, Jill's brother, picked them up at the airport. They and Jay's family including his two son, Jonathan and Matt and their families which included a total of five kids all under the age of seven or so were to spend Christmas a few days before and after together. It was an energetic time with plenty of happy noise.

One day Kristofer, Len and Jill took the train into Grand Central station and walked to the Neue Gallerie where they had coffee and cake in an European-styled cafe. Kristofer and Len stayed to view the works of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, and Egon Schiele while Jill walked to the MET. Jill had see the Neue Gallerie earlier in the year. Kristofer and Len the walked to the MET and saw the Last Knight an exhibit of the armour of Maximilian, and then a mad dash through the Expressionist, and Dutch painters permanent exhibits. Later they took a taxi to a Japanese restaurant for a ramen bowl each.

Writings

Jill finished her first story.

New Year's Eve

Back in Chapel Hill / Carrboro Len and Jill were at the home of Liz and Bill Estes in a their Japanese-styled house. Bill is a retired scientist whose focus is chemistry. Bill grew up in North Carolina.

Also at the get-together was Cullen who does gardening work and landscaping. His family owns a farm in South Carolina though the family no longer farms the land. Over the last few years, Cullen has been planting native trees on the once-tilled land, bringing it back to its natural wild state.

Penny and her husband are from Taiwan. He is a scientist in some area of biology at UNC. She plays traditional Chinese instruments and teaches piano.

Carol is of Finnish descent. Her family once owned a mink farm in Minnesota. She has spoken of feeding, slaughtering and skinning mink when she was a girl. The mink business went out of business when a disease infected their minks, and they had to kill them all. Eventually the farm was sold. Carol's main concern these days are problem with renters or finding renters for the homes she owns in Minnesota and Connecticut and the room she rents out in her home in Chapel Hill. Her mother, besides being a farming wife, had been a professional musician playing guitar and singing in a local band near the farm. Carol has a PhD. in some aspect of theatre, perhaps stage design, but now bring in money from her rentals, grading papers for an online student testing business, and cleaning houses. She turned 70 a few years ago.

Frank, a retired medical doctor, repairs books in a few local library. His wife, Charmaine died in 2019 from cancer. She was from South America. She spoke English with only a slight accent. She owned and stabled a horse at a small ranch outside of town, a horse which Jill rode occasionally.

Buzz is a retire technical writer who worked as SAS for a number of years. He has PhD. in philosophy. Though Jewish he says that present-day Jews are not really Jews in their DNA, but rather originally converts to Judaism some some hundreds of years ago in the Russia area. Buzz recently remarried to a Jewish woman. They had a traditional Jewish wedding.

All of those above including others Len has coffee with at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro on Saturday mornings.

Also at the New Year gathering were others, most of whom Len had seen or met before but didn't know. One was Ellen who is German but speaks English with no accent. She and Len spoke at length in the living room. She and her parent emigrated to the U.S. from Germany when Ellen was six years old. She started school in America knowing now English. She was scared. She was from the Main area. Her parents went through a lot of hardship, probably during, and following WWII. She aid in those days you ate any way you could even if it included lying and stealing. Her family emigrated to get way from the relative deprivation that still existed when she was a girl. They also did not like the fact that many Nazis still had there jobs in German administration. She returned to Germany when she was a young woman where she met her husband Ralf, a tall lanky man with a nice smile and glasses. She moved to the States eventually. She still has a green card but will be applying for U.S. citizenship. She does not think this Trump era will interfere with her doing so like Trump has with so many others. Len and Ellen spoke of being ethnically mixed, she German and American and he Swedish and American. They also spoke of celebrating holidays, including Christmas Eve and Easter different from Americans.

The kitchen and living room was alive with conversations, people standing or sitting in pairs or small groups sipping wine and eating 'finger food' as it's called. Most left before midnight as did Jill and Len. At home in their little apartment they sipped Bailey's Irish Cream and watched Times Square celebrations with newscaster Anderson Cooper on CNN.

To incorporate above:

Completing his Master's in 1978 he worked for YWAM again, but this time at their location outside the little village of Epe, north of the bigger town of Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Len met his wife in Holland who was from Connecticut. After getting married in California in 1982 they lived in Mt. Hermon, California, for a little less than a year, followed by a year in Menlo Park, five years in Palo Alto, and eight years in Oakland though during that time they lived, also, outside the village of Lucan near Dublin, Ireland for three months while Len was involved in a work assignment for his employer, Apple Computer.

If the count is correct Len lived in four states by the time he was five years old. He attended six grammar schools, one junior high, two high schools, and four colleges or graduate schools though that is not counting a few classes he took at various colleges in subsequent years. If you count the three months he and his family lived in Ireland he has lived in six countries - Ireland, the United States, Taiwan, Israel, Holland and Switzerland. He has also traveled to about thirty countries in North America, North Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. His brother, Carey, has traveled to many more countries, which Len envies.

When someone asks Len where he's from he is not sure what to say.

Len's wife Jill is an actress who has a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Theater, and a Masters Degree in Broadcast Communications. She has been an assistant director for a Christian theatre group in San Francisco and co-producer for a talk show on a local television cable station in Los Altos, California, and in 2008 was Director of Development at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, North Carolina. As mentioned, Len and Jill met in Holland where they both worked for the same mission, but they actually got to know each other while camping with friends just outside of Athens, Greece. They are currently (2011) living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

For a listing of the places Lennart and his family have lived see:

Lennart Holmquist Addresses

Places Len Lived

Employment Documents of Lennart Holmquist

Previous Page         Next Page

Footnotes