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Hope4TheOrphan – Themba

Holden MacRae

Holden MacRae 

Board member since 2018 

Hope4theOrphan (H4tO)/Themba


Holden was born and raised in South Africa, a 20th generation African, son of Dutch and Scottish immigrants. He is a long-time educator, having completed his undergraduate degree in English and Physical Education at the University of Stellenbosch, and then a teaching diploma at the University of Cape Town, before pursuing graduate degrees and eventually teaching at Pepperdine University for 31 years. It was during his teaching diploma that he was first exposed to black student education during the apartheid era in South Africa – an education system that was inferior to white student education. As one of his student teaching rotations in 1980, he and 15 other student teachers, were given permission by the South African government to teach for three weeks in a black school, the first white South Africans to do so. Living in a black township/homeland, being exposed to the curiosity, passion for learning and excellence of the students he taught each day, convicted him that the way out of poverty and second-class citizenship for black children in southern Africa was both the opportunity to be educated as well as support for education that rivalled anything a white student would be provided. Thus, H4tO mission to educate the orphan and expose them to the way of Jesus is a small way in which Holden is giving back to a part of Africa he dearly loves. 

Holden MacRae, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Sports Medicine in the Natural Science Division at Pepperdine University. He completed M.Ed. in Kinesiology from the University of Texas at Austin, and Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Cape Town Medical School (South Africa). He continues to pursue his interest in health/wellness/fitness by co-founding two start-up companies, is committed to helping men in the Gunnison Valley to apprentice with Jesus, and loves to play outside on his mountain bike in the summer and Nordic skis in the winter.  He lives with his wife Priscilla in Crested Butte, CO.