Dr. Mark Holder will be honored with the Outstanding Service to Humanity Award Tuesday, March 28, at the Sabine Hall of Fame Banquet at St. Joseph’s Catholic Hall in Zwolle. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the program will start at 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Holder, a man of many talents, is Chief of Staff at Sabine Medical Center, where he also serves as an Emergency Room Physician. He is a detective on the Many Police Department and serves as Sabine Parish Coroner.
A native of Houma, his father worked in the oilfield and his mother was a police officer. Dr. Holder was graduated from high school and then attended LSU and Nichols State University earning a BS in biological sciences/ chemistry. He was accepted at the LSUMC School of Medicine in New Orleans where he earned his MD degree.
Dr. Holder completed his internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson and then returned to LSUMC at the Earl Long Hospital in Baton Rouge to complete his residency in Internal Medicine. His focus was on critical care and cardiology. Following his residency, he remained in Baton Rouge as a clinical instructor in Internal Medicine/ Hospital Medicine for a short time before joining the staff at Baton Rouge General and Ochsner Clinic Foundation as a hospitalist. During this time, he moonlighted in various emergency rooms throughout the state and gained an interest in Emergency Medicine.
In 2017, Dr. Holder was offered a staff position at Sabine Medical Center and decided to return to a rural setting like the one he grew up in just south of Houma. He was welcomed with open arms by the people of Sabine Parish and as a result he embraced the community.
He accepted a position as Director of Emergency Medicine and following the death of Dr.
Jack Corley (a physician for whom he had a tremendous amount of respect), he was advanced to Chief of Staff.
Shortly after moving to Many, former Sheriff Ronny Richardson and his Chief Deputy John Adair gave Dr. Holder the opportunity to join the Sheriff’s Office initially as a reserve deputy and shortly thereafter as a full-time patrolman.
He was elected Parish Coroner in 2019, and in 2020 joined the Many Police Department working under the late Chief Roger Freeman as a detective. Following, Freeman’s death, Dr. Holder continued in the position under Chief Cheryl Wooley. He completed his POST training at Bossier Sheriff’s Office Training Academy in 2022 and is also a certified homicide investigator.
In April 2022 he and his wife Misti were wed. She is a schoolteacher in Shreveport. He is blessed to have two stepsons, Ali and Eli, and a wonderful family. Dr. Holder enjoys traveling, family time, playing the guitar, fishing and hunting.
“Serving the people of Sabine has been truly rewarding and an honor,” he commented. “I gain so much inspiration from my daily interactions with the wonderful people of this parish. They are why I do what I do. This parish has welcomed me into the community, and I am humbled by this honor.”
Advance tickets for the banquet at $50 each may be purchased at Pete Abington’s office at 1030 San Antonio Ave., Nichols in Many, the Sabine Parish Tourist Commission and Sabine Parish Chamber of Commerce at 1601 Texas Hwy., Robert Gentry’s Office at 605 San Antonio Ave. inside the radio station building, and by calling Martha Henderson in Zwolle at (318) 645-9573.
Each year the Hall of Fame make donations to non-profit charitable groups. This year, the Hall will donate to H.E.L.P of Sabine, a Christian 501c(3) corporation that provides outdoor opportunities to physically disabled children, adults and combat injured veterans, and to SWAG Youth Group at St. Joseph Catholic Church.